Devil's Advocate
by Scyphi
Summary: When Hacker starts stealing seemingly insignificant power crystals, the Cybersquad is stumped as to what he's up to...until too late. Please R&R!
1. Searching and Spying

Summary: When Hacker starts stealing seemingly insignificant power crystals, the Cybersquad is stumped as to what he's up to...until too late.

Rating: K+ to T (meaning it could change)

This will be a bit darker fanfic than some of my past ones, at least once it gets going. It's also setting the scene for a very pivotal fanfic that is to come after this one. Please note that while it seems like this fanfic picks up from where "Backup Support" left off, that is not the case. Like always, this is next in my ongoing series of Cyberchase fanfics, and as such, will make reference to fanfics past. While not necessarily required, it might be a good idea to make sure you are familiar with these fanfics.

There also have been requests from you readers for longer chapters. While this chapter obviously does not qualify, (it's merely an intro chapter anyway) I will try to meet these requests. However, please note that I only have so much time to write these chapters, and in addition to this fanfic, I am working on two others and have to update them at the same time. So, in short, I will try to make the chapters longer, but most likely won't be all that much longer than they already are.

Anyway, enjoy. :)

CYBERCHASE

DEVIL'S ADVOCATE

1.

Searching and Spying

The Grim Wreaker set down quietly, hiding itself from sight by the tall jungle trees that surrounded it. Before the dust that had been blown up into the air during the landing had settled, the Wreaker's entrance ramp had lowered, and the robotic henchmen, Buzz and Delete were stepping down it.

Delete coughed on the dust, nearly dropping the shovel he carried. "This can't be good for my allergies." he sniffed.

"Oh hush, ya don't hear me complaining." Buzz muttered, holding out a small device, resembling a PDA. He pointed. "That way."

The two started walking off in the stated direction.

"Why did the boss send us out here again?" Delete asked, wiping his nose with a handkerchief.

"To get the crystal." Buzz replied, distracted.

"Another one?" Delete repeated. "How many does the boss need?"

Buzz shrugged. "I just know we gotta get it, and it's that way." he pointed again, studying the display on his scanner.

They continued walking.

"What are those crystals anyway?" Delete asked.

Again Buzz shrugged. "Some kind of power crystal, I'd guess, considering what Hacker's been using them for." he guessed.

"Kinda like that one power crystal that was supposed to keep the boss recharged forever before the Earth kid's stole it?" Delete asked.

"Kinda, but they must not be nearly as powerful, because Hacker hasn't tried using them like that yet." Buzz pointed out.

"Any idea what Hacker plans to do?" Delete asked.

"Might have something with that secret-thing-we're-not supposed-to-talk-about-no-matter-where-we-are-unless-the-boss-says-otherwise that we got from that equally-secret-cybersite." Buzz replied dryly. "Delete, don't ask questions that pertain to such secret things, it really tires my mouth out." he stopped for a moment, studying the scanner for a moment. "Over there." he said, and started leading the way up a hill.

Delete, having the carry the very heavy shovel, began to struggle in the climb upward, and fell back for a moment, but once they reached the top, he began conversation again.

"You think that, whatever the boss's plan is, it'll work?" Delete asked.

"Hacker certainly thinks so." Buzz pointed out, stopping and pointing at the patch of ground front of him "But then all of his plans are like that."

"Yeah, and all of them have failed at one point." Delete added, as he began to dig at the indicated spot.

"I think the boss is losing his touch." Buzz thought out loud as he watched Delete work. "And it's gone to his head. Haven't you noticed how...odd...he's been acting?"

"Like the time he interrogated his dinner to see whether or not it stole his sock?" Delete offered, panting as he continued to dig.

"I was actually thinking of the time he thought everything around him was fake, but that works too." Buzz said idly.

"He's been working in his lab a lot lately too." Delete added, stopping to catch his breath before continuing again. "What do you think he's working on?"

"Who can say?" Buzz asked. "We're not allowed in there, so we can't see. Might be some kind of backup plan that he's working on."

"Well, if it is, he doesn't get them very often." Delete said. "I mean, usually, he could have one plan fail and go for months on end before he gets another. Remember that one time when..."

But he trailed off when his shovel hit something hard with a loud clunk. He peered into the hole and announced, "Found it!"

Both he and Buzz dug at the hole with their hands for a moment before they withdrew a fairly large and oddly shaped crystal, about a foot in diameter. Once they had pulled it free, though, they did not take the time to study it, for they had seen several more like it before now.

"C'mon lets go." Buzz said, picking up the shovel to carry, while Delete carried the crystal.

They didn't get far before they were stopped by a flash of light and an odd noise.

"What was that?" Delete asked.

Buzz thought for a moment. "Well, we are on Tikiville, and the boss said they were having some kind of celebration today." he reasoned. "Maybe it was a firework."

"In the middle of the day?" Delete asked in mild disbelief.

"Guess it was a late bloomer." Buzz stated.

"Don't you mean early bloomer?" Delete asked.

"Whatever! Let's just get that crystal back to the boss and get out of here." Buzz said, annoyed.

And they hurried off. It was only once they had left that Creech popped out of a row of bushes, pulling the still developing photograph from her camera.

"Yes, please do." Creech said to herself as she watched the photo develop to porttray Buzz and Delete with the mysterious crystal. "And the sooner the better, so I can tell some friends of mine what you're up to..."


	2. Discussions and Decisions

And another chapter. Mild references to "The Time Traveler" in this, nothing too major, but if you don't fully understand what's going on, go refer to that fanfic. In fact, if you haven't read "The Time Traveler" yet, I recommend you do so, for I'm planning on revisiting that idea sometime in the near future.

2.

Discussions and Decisions

Inez studied the picture being displayed on the large screen where Motherboard was usually seen. "Any idea what that thing is?" she asked, gesturing to the crystal the two robotic henchmen had.

"No." Creech replied, her face sitting in a box in one corner of the screen. "In fact, I didn't hear all of their conversation. I was lucky to hear what I did."

"Lucky indeed." Motherboard said, her face sitting in another box in the opposite corner of the screen. "Had they any reason to suspect they were at risk of being overheard, they wouldn't have said anything."

"But naturally, they didn't." Digit said snidely. "Too dumb."

"Leave it to Buzz and Delete." Matt said, stepping up next to Inez to get a better look at the picture. "One thing is clear, though. Hacker's up to the usual again."

"Was there any doubt?" Jackie asked. "It's been awhile since we thwarted his last plan. Hacker had to start causing trouble again sometime."

"Yes, but it sounded like Hacker's been at this for awhile now." Creech added.

"Yeah, I got that impression too." Inez agreed. "If we knew what those crystals were, we might get somewhere."

"Maybe there's a pattern to all of this." Jackie thought out loud.

"Not that I can see." Motherboard said. "In addition to Tikiville, the Grim Wreaker has also visited Ecohaven, Poddleville, Sensible Flats, and the Forest since yesterday. Seemingly at random."

Creech was impressed. "Wow, you can do that, Motherboard?" she asked.

"She can now." Matt said, proudly.

"Which brings us to some good news." Digit said. "Yesterday, the Encryptor chip finally did it's thing and cured Motherboard of her virus. She can do lots of stuff now."

"And what's even better is that Hacker doesn't know yet." Inez added. "Meaning we can do things like track the Grim Wreaker without him knowing."

"That _is _good news!" Creech agreed.

"Unfortunately, Hacker is still out there, and dangerous." Motherboard interrupted.

"And is up to no good, it sounds like." Matt agreed. "We just don't know _what_."

"It's that crystal that's throwing us off." Jackie said. "If we knew what it was, that would answer quite a few questions."

"I am doing a search of my database to any matches to that crystal." Motherboard said. "So far, I have not had any luck. If any reference of it is in my database, it is nothing new."

"Well, that doesn't make any sense." Matt said. "If it was an _old _discovery, wouldn't we know something about it already?"

"Not necessarily, Matt." Dr. Marbles said, suddenly entering the room, a datachip in one hand. "Because Motherboard's right, those crystals are old. Very old, so much so, we've all forgotten what they are."

"So you know what they are?" Inez asked, as Dr. Marbles strolled past and inserted the datachip into a slot on Motherboard's controls.

"Yes indeed." Marbles said. "Because I realized the crystals are of Cyantian origin, and thus knew where to look."

"Cyantian?" Matt asked. "That makes twice Hacker has gotten a hold of Cyantian technology without our knowing."

"Yes, but this time it is not so surprising." Marbles said, as the picture of Buzz and Delete was replaced with a diagram of the crystal, as well as a column of scrolling data. "The crystals are Cyantian power crystals. A kind of battery that the Founders of Cyberspace used to power their technology. When the Founders left, the crystals were presumably left scattered all throughout Cyberspace, but until now, one was only found to date."

Marbles worked the controls for a moment, and an aging picture of a cyborg holding one such power crystal appeared. "Twenty years ago, Dr. Frederick Marbles discovered a Cyantian power crystal, but the crystal was long dead, so while the discovery was enormous, nothing much was learned from it."

"Dr. Frederick _Marbles_?" Jackie asked. "Is he related to you?"

Marbles nodded. "That's how I knew the crystal was Cyantian." he replied. "He was my grandfather, and at the time, he was the foremost expert on Cyantian technology. That expertise was eventually passed on down to me, but I've had seldom chance to use it."

Inez had been thinking. "Power crystals..." she muttered, "Could it be that Hacker's trying to use them to give him the ultimate recharge? A more permanent one?"

"I already considered that." Marbles said. "The calculations I made fell far short. It's doubtful that's Hacker's plan."

"Here's an idea." Creech said suddenly. "Maybe Hacker wants them to power something else altogether."

"I've reached that conclusion as well." Motherboard agreed. "Seeing that the crystals are batteries and are meant to be used as such, it is the most logical solution."

"But Hacker hasn't been thinking very logically as of late." Matt pointed out.

"And this all doesn't tell us very much." Jackie added. "We have a good idea how the crystals are going to be used, but not for what."

"For that matter, we don't even know how Hacker's finding these things so quickly and effectively." Inez said. "I mean, think about it. It's been many, many, years since the Founders of Cyberspace left, and we've only found one during that time, and that was twenty years ago."

"And obviously, in order to stop Hacker, we have to keep him from getting more of these things." Matt said.

"And only he knows where the next one would be." Creech added.

"Mother B, any idea where Hacker's going next?" Jackie asked.

"No." Motherboard replied. "The Wreaker's course takes within range of a dozen cybersites, and it'll be several hours before he reaches any of them."

"We can't just pick one and hope Hacker will arrive there." Matt said. "We need a better strategy."

"There must be some way for Hacker to be tracking these things." Inez reasoned.

"That is," Marbles said, a thought coming to him, "Unless he already knows where to look."

The Cybersquad looked at the doctor, realizing what he meant.

"Could he get there, Doc?" Digit asked.

"He was present when we found it." Marbles pointed out, "So it stands to reason."

"And it would explain a whole lot." Matt agreed.

"But the place was in _ruins_!" Jackie exclaimed. "How could he find _anything _of use there?"

"There had to be something." Inez said, "Because at the moment, it's the only thing we've got to go off of."

"Not to mention, we didn't really take the time to explore the place." Matt added, "So there could be something that would tell hacker what he wanted to know about the crystals somewhere."

"But it's been all locked up since we left!" Jackie exclaimed. "No one has been there since we were."

"True, but like I said, Hacker was present when we discovered it, so he could have enough information to get around it." Marbles added.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Creech interrupted, who was totally lost. "What, or where, are we talking about here?"

It was Motherboard who replied. "Cyantis." she answered.

"The lost cybersite of the Founders?" Creech asked, slightly surprised.

"Yep." Matt said. "Where else would you find such precise information about Cyantian technology such as power crystals?"


	3. Return to Cyantis

And back to the lost (formerly) cybersite Cyantis! Scene set for next chapter (and beyond, really beyond). Enjoy.

3.

Return to Cyantis

The cybercraft sped along the depths of Cyberspace in silence, achieved, as usual, by Digit, who sat at the controls.

"We're approaching Cyantis." the cybird reported. "Another few minutes of flight, and we should be there."

"I hope we find what we're looking for there." Matt muttered.

"Or rather, what we _hope _to find there." Inez corrected. "We don't have anything to confirm the existence of something on the cybersite that could have told Hacker where to look for Cyantian power crystals."

"Any ideas what that something could be anyway?" Matt asked out loud.

"Probably a data console of some sort." Dr. Marbles provided an answer. "However, when you four visited the site last, you did say that there was very little technology wise left intact."

"Yeah, time and weather got to it all." Digit muttered, focusing on the controls.

"You sure you wanted to come with Dr. Marbles?" Inez asked, looking up in her seat to where Marbles stood behind her. "Don't you think you should be at Control Central, just in case Hacker attacks, or something?"

"I'm sure." Marbles said. "Besides, it's not like Control Central isn't completely unguarded. Jackie and Widget are there, and they know what to do in an emergency. Plus, Creech agreed to stay in contact with Control Central, just in case something does go wrong." Marbles sighed, looking out the glass canopy at the field of cyberjunk where the formerly lost cybersite was hidden. "And besides," he continued, "I've never been to Cyantis, and I've been dying for a chance to visit."

"Not a whole lot to see, I'm afraid." Matt said. "Nothing there but ruins."

"Or so we think." Marbles pointed out. "And anyway, the ruins in of themselves would be fascinating to study."

"If you say so." Matt muttered.

"Magnetite levels have spiked." Digit reported, reading a gage on the dashboard and accelerated, so to get through quickly. "We'll be passing through Cyantis's shield and cloak momentarily."

Sure enough, the area of space around them suddenly wavered as if the cybercraft was flying through a field of water. The moment it was on the other side, a sprawling metropolis came into view, and even though most of it was ruins, it was a very impressive sight.

"Magnetite levels have dropped." Digit reported, then brought the cybercraft into a banking turn. "Scanning for anything of interest."

As Digit circled the cybersite, the others leaned over to look at the cybersite.

"Amazing." Marbles muttered. "Imagine how long it must have took to build it all."

"Considering who made it, probably not that long." Inez remarked, remembering how advanced the Founders of Cyberspace seemed to be.

"So, what did the Founders of Cyberspace do in their spare time?" Matt asked, the thought just coming to him.

"One of the many things we could learn from Cyantis." Marbles replied.

Suddenly, Digit's dashboard beeped.

"Um, you're not going to believe this, Doc, but I'm picking up an energy signature in the center of the city." Digit said. "A really strong one."

"What?" Marbles asked, coming over to look at the readout. "But when we scanned the city when it was discovered, we found no such energy scans."

"And yet, there it is." Inez said, joining them.

"Where is it, Digit?" Matt asked.

"That's another thing you aren't going to believe." Digit said. "It's coming from _underground_."

"Underground?" Marbles repeated. "You sure it's not the site's main power core?"

"Positive." Digit said. "The signature isn't _that _strong."

"Sounds like something we should check out." Inez voiced.

"Agreed." Marbles said. "Get us as close as you can, Digit."

The cybird nodded, and brought the cybercraft down, landing it in the middle of what could've been some kind of park, now overrun with weeds. The foursome exited the craft and looked around.

"Well, it's certainly not anywhere here." Inez remarked.

"You sure it's here, Didge?" Matt asked. "I would think that there would be something here to indicate something generating that kind of power visible from above ground. Like an entrance."

Digit reached into his chest compartment and pulled out a handheld scanner to double check. "Positive." he replied. "According to this, we're right above it."

They looked around and saw nothing but weeds and crumbling ruins on the horizon.

"How deep underground is it, Digit?" Marbles asked.

"Not very." Digit said, then admitted, "It could be a sub-level to something."

"There's nothing here but weeds." Matt said, venturing forward a few feet.

"Maybe we should pull out some shovels and start digging." Inez suggested.

"That would take too long." Digit said. "We could only have a matter of hours before Hacker reaches his destination."

"There must be something we're missing..." Marbles thought aloud to himself.

He looked like he was going to say more, but Matt suddenly yelped. The ground that he had just stepped on suddenly sank downward about a foot and slid aside into a concealed cavity, leaving a hole for Matt to drop into.

"Like that." Digit said, and they all raced to the opening and peered inside.

"Ow." Matt's voiced echoed up to them from the darkness.

"Matt, are you alright?" Inez called down.

"Yeah." came Matt's reply. "It's not as a far as a fall as you'd think. I think there's a ladder you guys can use to get down here."

"We see it!" Digit said, lowering himself onto the rusting ladder. Inez and Dr. Marbles followed, vanishing into the darkness.

"Can you describe what you see down there, Matt?" Marbles asked.

"A lot of darkness." Matt replied.

"Thank you for stating the obvious, Matt." Inez groaned.

"You're welcome Nezzie." Matt replied. "I think it's some kind of cavern, probably artificial."

"Don't call me Nezzie." Inez muttered, reaching the bottom. She looked around and saw nothing but inky blackness.

"Matt, where are you?" Inez asked.

"Right here!" a voice from directly in front of her said suddenly.

Inez yelped and backed up into Dr. Marbles as he reached the bottom of the shaft.

"It's too dark." Marbles muttered.

"Hang on, I think I have the solution." Digit said, and suddenly his hat began to glow brightly. "Thank goodness for that glow-in-the-dark hat Motherboard gave me last month."

They looked around at the empty, dust-coated, hallway they stood in.

"Definitely some kind of secret facility." Marbles muttered.

"Secret for what?" Inez asked out loud.

Matt found a computer screen and wiped dust off of it. "This place as been sheltered." he said, seeing that the screen was still fairly intact. "If what we're looking for exists, it's be here."

"Look, tracks!" Digit suddenly exclaimed, pointing at the slightly smeared prints in the dust.

Inez bent over and studied them. "Hacker." she instantly deduced. "He's been here alright."

"But look here." Matt suddenly said, pointing at the another set of tracks. "Someone was with him."

"Buzz or Delete?" Marbles asked.

"No, Hacker wouldn't trust them enough." Digit said. "And besides, these tracks are too big. More around Matt's size."

"Possibly some new henchman that we don't know about?" Matt asked.

"Or a third party that's after the same thing as the rest of us." Inez reasoned.

"Only one way to find out." Marbles said, leading the way.

They soon reached a heavy metal door. Marbles examined it.

"This portion of the facility has been well sheltered." he said, gesturing to the hallway around them, "But whatever is beyond this door must be in mint condition, like it's brand new."

"What makes you say that?" Digit asked.

"This door has a vacuum seal." Marbles explained, running his hand across the cold metal. "And it's only been recently broken."

"Hacker." Matt said.

Marbles nodded, and pushed the door open. Beyond was the circular room filled with technology, perfectly preserved. As they stepped inside, a hidden sensor detected their presence and suddenly the room came to life as everything powered on, lighting the room.

Inez was in awe at it all. "This is definitely what we're looking for." she said.

Marbles stepped over to a computer console and began working with it, watching the data scroll across it's screen. "You are right Inez." he said. "There is more information here than at the Cybrary. It would take more than a lifetime to read it all. No doubt Hacker found out the locations of the power crystals from here."

"But how did he even know that all of this was even here?" Matt asked.

"Maybe he detected the power signature like we did." Digit offered.

"No." Marbles said, reading the data. "It says here that when the room was sealed, it's data core went into power save so it couldn't be detected. It was only turned back on when the room was unsealed."

"That explains why we didn't detect the power signature before." Inez said.

"But how did Hacker find this place then?" Matt asked.

"It's another mystery to add to the list." Marbles said. "But it's taken the place of another. I've figured out where Hacker will pick up the next power crystal, the last one left out there."

"Where is it?" Inez asked.

Marbles turned in his seat to face them. "Frogsnorts."


	4. Frogsnorts

Yes, I had fun with this arguement that Matt and Inez get into. Also, according to the Cyberchase website, _Harry Potter_ is Inez's favorite book, as is _Redwall_ Matt's favorite.

4.

Frogsnorts

"You know, and this is entirely off subject," Inez said, "But you'd think they'd have a better name for this cybersite than Frogsnorts."

"What's wrong with Frogsnorts?" Matt asked. "It's the name of the school that preoccupies most of that site. Frogsnorts School of Magic, or something like that."

"Matt, think about it." Inez said. "What kind of name is Frogsnorts, anyway?"

"What kind of name is Hogwarts then?" Matt retorted.

Inez frowned. "That's an entirely different matter." she pressed.

"No it isn't." Matt said.

"Yes it is." Inez said. "And if you think Hogwarts is a weird name, then what about Redwall? I mean, how unoriginal can you get?"

"Redwall is a very good book." Matt said in defense of his favorite series. "It doesn't get the credit it deserves. Unlike Harry Potter, which gets too _much_."

"It does not!" Inez said.

"Does too, Nezzie!"

"Don't call me Nezzie, Matthew!"

"Enough already!" Marbles quickly intervened. "Inez, the reason Frogsnorts is the name of the cybersite in question is because no one knew what the site's name was before the school was established. When it was, the Grand Cyber Council started referring to it as Frogsnorts, and the name just stuck."

"Wouldn't the Cyantis database refer to the site as it's real name?" Matt asked.

"Just it's identification number, right doc?" Digit asked, as he piloted the cybercoop to Frogsnorts.

Marbles nodded. "CS-33050001433610." he recited from memory.

"What a mouthful." Matt muttered.

"Obviously, the name Frogsnorts is preferred over that." Marbles stated.

"But, c'mon, there must a better name to call the place." Inez said, pressing the argument.

"Speaking of Frogsnorts, we're almost there." Digit announced.

And sure enough, the cybersite was in full view by now.

Digit did a quick scan. "No Grim Wreaker in sight." he added.

"Good." Marbles said. "That means we still have a chance to look around for the crystal and find it before Hacker arrives."

"Does anybody know we're coming?" Matt asked.

"No, why?" Marbles asked.

"No reason." Matt replied.

"He's just hoping to see Shari." Inez stated.

"Am not." Matt argued.

"Are too."

"Enough, both of you." Marbles stated. "And it's doubtful we'll see much of anyone except Hacker, as school would still be in session at Frogsnorts." he then pointed down at the cybersite. "Land us there, Digit, if you please."

"Okey-doke." Digit said, doing as requested.

They exited the cybercoop and looked around, seeing the school in the distance, but not much else.

"Now what?" Matt asked. "It's a big cybersite, how will we find it's exact location?"

Digit pulled out his scanner from his chest compartment. "I guess we just follow the biggest energy signatures we can find." he said, studying the scanner's display. "This way is a fairly big signature."

Digit lead the way as the others followed.

"Buzz and Delete knew exactly where to go." Inez pointed out. "And considering how smart those two are, we certainly can do what they did."

"I think this _is _what they did." Digit said, zig-zagging through a small bunch of trees. "The reason they found it so fast is because Hacker had a more exact location for the crystal than we do and was able to set the Wreaker down as close as possible to the crystal."

"But we got the location for this crystal from the same source Hacker did." Matt pointed out. "How can Hacker track the crystal's location more precisely than we can?"

"Hacker probably reconfigured the Wreaker's sensors to better track the crystals." Marbles said. "We could probably do the same thing to the Cybercoop, but we simply don't have the time."

"So we're doing it this way." Digit said, nearly running into a tree because he was studying the scanner too closely. "We're getting close."

The trees suddenly cleared as they approached a little stream. Matt, Inez, and Marbles looked around as Digit studied his scanner one last time to get a final fix on the energy signature he was detecting. "It's right...there." he pointed with one wing and looked at the spot he pointed at. He blinked. "Well, I'll be. It's..."

"Shari!" Matt exclaimed, his face brightening.

Shari Spotter, the young wizardess-in-training, looked up from where she had been making bubbles with her wand.

"Matthew?" she exclaimed, surprised, seeing the party of four standing nearby. "Inez? Digit? Dr. Marbles? Wot are you all doing here?"

"What are _you _doing here?" Marbles asked as they all walked over. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

"They let us out early." Shari explained. "School's basement flooded, and they need all of the teachers present to help clean it up."

"Couldn't you just...you know...wave a wand and make it all go away?" Inez asked.

"There's more to magic than just waving a wand, Inez." Shari said.

"Yeah, Nezzie, there's more to it than that." Matt quickly said, looking annoyed.

Inez grumbled something incoherently.

"It's great to see you all, though." Shari went on. "Wot brings you to Frogsnorts?"

"I'm afraid it's not for good reasons." Marbles said. "Hacker is apparently after Cyantian power crystals, and our sources say that there's one somewhere on this cybersite. We want to find it before Hacker does." he paused, then added, "Speaking of which, Digit, where is that power signature again?"

Digit slapped his face and pointed at Shari's wand. "Right there." he muttered.

Marbles slapped his face too. "I forgot, Frogsnorts would just be glowing with mystic energy."

"Power crystals?" Shari asked. "What would Hacker want with power crystals?"

"We don't know." Inez admitted.

"But we'd prefer not to find out." Matt added.

"Good thinking, Matthew." Shari said, then thought for a moment, twirling her wand. "Maybe I could use magic to find it?" she suggested.

"No good." Marbles said, taking Digit's scanner and adjusting it's readings. "The power crystal is technological. Magic and technology don't usually mix well."

"Then wot's it doing here?" Shari asked.

Marbles didn't answer. "There." he said. "I've adjusted this scanner to ignore mystic energy signatures. Now we should get a better idea of where that crystal is." he turned around once or twice in a sweeping manner, looking for possible candidates on the scanner. "There." he said, pointing.

This time Marbles lead the way while the others followed, Shari tagging along, seeing she had nothing else to do.

"How's the magic coming along, Shari?" Matt asked.

"Really good, Matthew, thank you." Shari replied. "I just learned this really neat spell that conjures donuts out of thin air. Want to see it?"

"Yeah!" Matt exclaimed.

"No." Marbles interrupted. "We need to stay focused. It's very important we find that crystal before...uh-oh."

Marbles abruptly stopped, causing Digit to run into him.

"What is it, doc?" Digit asked.

"I'm detecting a very large power signature." Marbles said, alarmed. "Too large to be mystic energy or the power crystal."

The others looked around. "Where, on the ground?" Inez asked.

"Not on the ground." Marbles said, looking upward at the sky. "Up there!"

They looked up in time for the Grim Wreaker to fly by overhead, coming to hover over a spot not far from here, gearing up to land.

"Oh corks!" Shari exclaimed.

"Hurry!" Marbles said, breaking out into a run, "There's still a chance!"

They raced towards the spot the Wreaker had landed. As they ran, Digit pulled laser pistols from his chest compartment and handed one each to Matt and Inez, keeping one for himself.

"Just in case." he said.

They raced around a particularly large tree and saw Buzz and Delete already digging at the earth not five feet from them. Another ten feet after that stood the Wreaker itself. Delete looked up and saw the five coming towards them and yelped. Buzz reacted quickly and pulled out his own laser pistol, shooting at the group, forcing them to duck back behind the tree. Delete began digging rapidly at the dirt.

Matt, Digit, and Inez, returned Buzz's fire. Neither side was hitting much of anything. Shari pulled out her wand and, pointing it at Buzz, uttered the first spell that came to mind. "Magic and coconuts, give me a yummy donut!" she yelled.

A donut appeared out of thin air and whizzed out over Buzz's head. Finding the donut more interesting than what was going on, Buzz went to grab it. Matt and Inez fired at him, cutting him off from Delete, who was now trying to press himself flat as far as he could go while still digging at the hole in the ground.

The battle raged on for a few moments more, before a low whirring noise rang out.

"Trouble!" Digit exclaimed, pointing at the laser cannon the Wreaker was lowering and aiming at them.

They all ducked, as the cannon fired. The shot was fired wide of it's target, but it's sheer destructive force left a trail of devastation behind it and got the message across to the Cybersquad.

"Ah ha!" Delete exclaimed, pulling the Cyantian power crystal free from the hole and tucked it under one arm as he ran for the Wreaker. Buzz covered him with wild laser fire, also retreated back to the Wreaker.

Matt, Inez, and Digit raced forward, firing their own pistols, desperate to stop the two henchmen. But Hacker was ready, and the moment Buzz and Delete's feet touched the ship's floor, the Wreaker began to take off. Matt, Inez, and Digit continued firing, until the Wreaker lashed out once more with it's laser cannon, making the three scatter for safety.

Now free of anything attacking it, the Wreaker turned and sped away, exiting the cybersite's boundaries with a flash of light...


	5. Attacked

Chapter title pretty much summarizes what happens in this chapter. ;)

5.

Attacked

Deep within the Grim Wreaker's many corridors, Hacker was at work. Within his laboratory, he was working on many projects, but currently only one withheld his attention. With great care, Hacker placed the most recently obtained Cyantian power crystal into it's slot on a rather large and complex device.

Wiping a cloth over the crystal to make it shine, Hacker peered at his reflection emotionlessly before taking a step back and looking at the overall machine on a whole. He then glanced at the readouts on a nearby computer screen, and saw they were exactly what he wanted to see.

He allowed himself a grin. It was ready.

* * *

"So, now what?" Jackie asked, back at Control Central.

"Now, we wait." Marbles replied. "Hopefully, Hacker will do something that will reveal what he intends to do with those power crystals soon, and with enough for us to figure out a way to combat him."

"Surely there must be something else we can do." Inez said.

Marbles frowned. "Nothing that comes to mind." he admitted. "Hacker currently holds all of the cards at the moment. As much as we don't like it, we can't do anything until Hacker starts playing those cards."

"Couldn't Hacker be out looking for another power crystal?" Matt asked.

"No." Motherboard replied. "I have been analyzing some of the data Dr. Marbles was able to retrieve from the Cyantis data core. The power crystal on Frogsnorts was the last power crystal in known Cyberspace that had yet to be retrieved."

"You mean Hacker's got them all?" Matt asked.

"With all of that power combined into one source, what could Hacker do with it all?" Digit asked.

"Lots of thing, Didge." Inez replied. "And it's a good chance none of them are good."

Marbles nodded in agreement.

"Where's the Wreaker now, Mother B?" Jackie asked. "Maybe that can clue us in to what Hacker's up to."

"Possibly Jackie, but unfortunately, I have lost track of the Grim Wreaker." Motherboard said, then went on to explain. "It passed through a minor cyberstorm about a half-hour ago, and my scans were not able to penetrate it. I must determine the Wreaker's current position in order to start tracking it again, and thus far, it is never where I think it should be. In short, Hacker could be anywhere but here and where I have scanned."

"But eventually you'll find him, Mother B." Jackie said reassuringly.

"Yes, Jackie, but you must realize that it's like searching for a needle in a haystack." Marbles said. "Cyberspace is very big, and comparatively speaking, the Wreaker is very small. Motherboard trying to guess the location of the Wreaker is very difficult, and it could take several hours to several days before she finds anything of use that would narrow the search."

"And we just don't have the time." Inez said, frustratingly kicking at the nearby railing.

"Maybe we should hop in the cybercoop and help Motherboard search." Matt suggested. "She can look in one area, while we look in another."

"A good idea, Matt, but still impractical." Marbles said. "It would still take quite some time before finding any trace of Hacker."

"Could he be at the Northern Frontier?" Jackie asked.

"Already searched." Motherboard replied.

"Any other cybersites?" Jackie pressed, determined to help in some way.

"Already searched." Motherboard replied again. "At least the ones that would be most logical."

Inez frowned at that remark, a thought coming to her. "Matt," she said to her friend, who was closest, "I'm going out to the balcony to think, and possibly check out a theory. So if anyone asks for me..."

"...I know where you are." Matt replied, catching on.

Inez grinned, and walked out of the room, through Control Central's many complex corridors, and stepping out a door and onto a circular balcony that looped around the outside of the cybersite, exposed directly to Cyberspace.

Inez had always liked the view from the balcony, for you literally could see on forever, right on into the very depths of Cyberspace, where little was known about it. Absentmindedly, she searched the sky, picking out her favorite cybersites, and thus the ones she knew the best. Solaria, the Cybrary, Radopolis, being among them.

But she quickly shook her head, and focused on her goal. Motherboard had searched all of the cybersites of any relevance to where Hacker could be, but most likely, she didn't search Control Central and the surrounding area. But Hacker wasn't one to be underestimated, and it was quite likely he was on his way here.

Of course, if that was true, no doubt Motherboard would detect Hacker long before he reached Control Central, probably seeing him long before Inez could. Still, Inez wasn't one who didn't like to do nothing in times like this, just waiting for something to happen, so it gave her something to do.

Eventually, her mind wandered. She thought about earlier at Frogsnorts, replaying events back in her head. She frowned when she remembered Shari getting involved. But it wasn't so such Shari that was the problem, but Matt. In all reality, Shari was good cyborg, and an excellent friend. But when ever Matt was near her, it seemed like all Matt focused on was Shari.

And that bugged her. Almost always, they needed Matt focused on other things. And, furthermore, Inez did not like the fact that always seemed to...not notice...the rest of the Cybersquad when Shari was around. Especially herself.

Inez suddenly came out of her reverie suddenly, when she saw a little speck of light move rapidly across the sky and come closer, growing bigger and bigger. Inez squinted at it, trying to make out what it was. This process was sped up immensely when alarms all over Control Central began to ring, which meant the light could be only one thing.

Hacker.

Inez quickly pulled out her SKWAK pad to contact everyone else and find out what's happening, but they were one step ahead of her, and were calling her.

"Inez!" came Jackie's panicked voice, "It's Hacker!"

"Yes, I know, I can see him!" Inez said, peering up at the decelerating Grim Wreaker, moving to hang not far from Control Central, now clearly visible. "What's he doing?"

"We're trying to find that out." Jackie replied. "Mother B is trying to contact him, but he's ignoring the calls."

"Looks like he's just hanging there right now." Inez remarked, slowly starting to back up for the door leading off of the balcony.

But immediately after she had said this, the hanger bay doors on the Grim Wreaker slid open with a low rumble, and something lowered out of them. At first Inez thought it was ship, but then the light reflected off of not one, but several somethings, creating a spark of light that made Inez blink.

She moved closer to the railing of the balcony and looked harder at the device. She suddenly realized that the sparkling items where the Cyantian power crystals and they were starting to glow. A very bad thought came to Inez's mind, and her eyes went from the barrel-shaped device to the upper parts of Control Central, the most she could see from the balcony.

It suddenly donned on her what Hacker was doing.

"Jackie!" Inez exclaimed, "Hacker's lowered some kind of weapon! He's going to fire! Raise a shield or something, he's going to..."

But it was too late. The makeshift weapon suddenly fired, releasing a ball of red energy. Inez turned and followed it to where the energy struck the topmost part of Control Central, releasing a bang and a flash of light, sending a wave of energy caressing through the cybersite, washing down to where Inez stood.

Or where she had stood.

When the energy struck the site, Inez shielded her eyes and backed up into the balcony railing. Surprised, she flipped over the railing, and with a gasp of shock, felt herself tumble out into Cyberspace...


	6. A Dose of Evil

Here's where things become dark, both literally and metaphorically.

6.

A Dose of Evil

Cyberspace is not at all like real space. Unlike the void separating one world from another in the Real World, which is cold, hostile, lacks gravity, and is a complete vacuum, the void dividing cybersites in Cyberspace has a wide variety of characteristics. It's temperature will vary, but usually will stay within habitable levels. Atmosphere also varies. Sometimes there will be a breathable atmosphere, and sometimes not. Sometimes there's something else altogether.

And then there's gravity. Since Cyberspace is more condensed, the naturally formed gravity wells of cybersites blend with one another more, and thus cause for interesting effects. Gravity will appear literally at random. In one spot there will be none, another will have the regular Earth gravity, and yet another could have far too much. The direction of it's pull will also vary.

In Inez's case, she was very lucky. Control Central occupied a spot of Cyberspace that was very friendly to life. It had a very breathable atmosphere. Gravity was at normal strength, and matched the gravity of the cybersite itself. It's pull was even in the same, in the sense that "down" was in the same direction both on and off of Control Central. Temperature was only lukewarm, probably several degrees below room temperature.

But at the moment, even though all of these thoughts came to Inez's mind, she was ignoring them. She had far more important things to worry about, such was the fact she had fallen off of the balcony on Control Central, and was now in a free-fall outside of the site's boundaries.

As already stated, "down" was the same both on and off of Control Central, so Inez started falling towards the alleged "bottom" of the cybersite, at an exponentially increasing rate. She began to wave her arms around, searching for a handhold to stop her fall. Falling out into the depths of Cyberspace without a ship was not a good idea. She would keep falling until something either found her, or something stopped her fall, and Inez did not want to have to think about either option.

Throwing aside her SKWAK pad, allowing it to tumble away, Inez tired to maneuver herself closer to the cybersite itself, in hopes of reaching more handholds. Meanwhile, the wave of energy the Grim Wreaker had unleashed on Control Central continued washing over the cybersite, and soon had engulfed the site entirely. Then, just as quickly as it had started, it faded.

The entire time of which Inez was _not_ on the cybersite itself.

But Inez did not note this. She was more focused on saving herself. Finally, she saw a another, smaller, balcony built in Control Central zipping up to her. Quickly, she lashed out with her arms, and was able to grab the balcony railing. Her fall was instantly stopped, swinging her legs down into the balcony's lip. A surge of pain washed up her legs, but Inez was otherwise okay.

Slowly, and very stunned by what had happened, Inez pulled herself onto the balcony, safe once again. Panting for several moments, she was thanking her luck. Once done with that, she looked around. Surprisingly, Control Central seemed to be generally unfazed by Hacker's weapon. At least, it didn't seemed to be damaged in any way. Inez wondered if some sort of defense against it was brought up just in time and protected it from the worse of Hacker's weapon, whatever it was.

Hacker. Wait, what was he doing now? Inez looked upward, to where the Grim Wreaker still hung. It had not done anything since it fired the first and only shot from it's weapon. Now it just sat there, as if waiting for something. If it was, then Hacker must be in for a disappointment, because nothing happened at all from Inez's viewpoint. Inez was afraid Hacker would fire again.

Wanting to get a better idea of what was going on, Inez reached for her SKWAK pad to contact her friends, but then remembered she had tossed it aside in her fall. Leaning over the edge of the balcony, she could still see it tumbling away into the depths of Cyberspace.

It was then that Hacker did something completely unexpected. The Wreaker's engines suddenly roared, pushing the ship to full throttle. And then it turned and left, heading back the way it came, the mysterious weapon retracting back into the Wreaker's hanger bay. Soon it was gone from sight.

Inez frowned. What had happened that she didn't know about? Did Hacker see that, whatever is weapon was supposed to do, it didn't work? So he gave up? That didn't sound like Hacker at all. No, there was something very wrong about all of this. Inez thought the matter once more, and upon coming up with no real theories, stood and opened the door leading into the corridor beyond.

It was dark inside Control Central. Inez felt a chill run up her back, and again she sensed that there was indeed something very wrong about all of this. Worried, she broke out into a run, and raced down the oddly darkened corridors, heading up the many hallways towards Motherboard's control room.

She saw no one along her way. Just dark corridors. But the further she went, the more Inez thought that Hacker's weapon _had _done something after all. But the question was; what?

Finally, Inez reached a plain metal door, which was all that divided her from her friends within. If they were still there. Inez had her doubts now. Still, the only way she could know for sure was to go through this door. So, after a brief moment of hesitation, she thumbed the door's open control and stepped into the room beyond.

It was even darker in the control room. The only light being emitted save the natural light of Cyberspace filtering in through the domed skylight that made up most of the room's ceiling in the room was Motherboard's display screen. Which currently displayed nothing but white static. That was never a good sign.

Inez's worry deepened. "Matt?" she called. "Jackie? Digit? Dr. Marbles? Is anybody here?"

All she heard in reply was her own voice echoing back to her. Inez gulped. This was definitely not a good sign. Hesitantly, she approached the control panel that stretched forth below Motherboard's display screen and looked it over. She knew very little about it; usually only Digit and Dr. Marbles operated it, seeing that the keyboard operated not only Motherboard, but most of Control Central as well.

Still, she had to do something, and this seemed like the best place to start. Her eyes scanned over the keyboard, looking for anything that could possibly help. One button was labeled "restart all processes" and sounded like a kind of reboot to Inez. Thinking it wouldn't hurt, she pressed it.

The room was suddenly flooded with blue light as Motherboard's display screen changed to that color. White text scrolled rapidly across it, so fast that Inez couldn't possibly catch it all, and what little she did seemed like nothing but gibberish. She presumed it was Motherboard's programming codes.

Then the screen went dark, made a clicking sound, then came back on. A status bar appeared, and slowly began to fill, indicating how long it would take to finish the reboot. Inez needn't wait long, for it filled rapidly, and the screen changed again.

Inez did not like what she saw.

In the background was the same swirling background of color Motherboard's display always showed, but it's brightness and contrast had been scrolled way down to the point it offered very little light. Cast overtop of it was the outline of Motherboard's face, currently hidden in shadow. Inez, at first, was pleased to see this, but it was gone just as quickly. Something was wrong.

She found out what when Motherboard's face emerged from the shadow that hid it and revealed it fully to Inez.

Inez gasped. Motherboard's face had darkened several shades of color. Her eyes were narrowed, and her eyebrows were slanted. That in of itself gave Motherboard's complection a frightening look, but that wasn't the worse part. The worse part was the fact that Motherboard's eyes were glowing blood red.

It made the leader of Cyberspace seem evil.

Very evil.

"Mother B?" Inez asked, much more than concerned. "Are you all right?"

"I am." Motherboard replied, her voice taking a dark tone, which did not help matters. "The best I have ever felt."

Inez began to back up, getting very scared. "You sure?" Inez asked, then shook her head. "Hacker's weapon did something to you, didn't it?"

"Of course it did, Inez." a new voice rang out.

Inez turned to her left and found Digit, quietly approaching her. The cybird seemed to be the same, but to Inez's dismay, Digit's eyes also glowed blood red, like Motherboard's, making him look evil.

"But don't worry about it." Digit continued, folding his wings sternly. "None of that matters now."

"None of it matters?" Inez repeated, bewildered. "What has that weapon done to you?"

"It has changed everything, Inez." yet another voice replied, this time from Inez's right.

Inez turned again and saw Dr. Marbles. His eyes also glowed.

"Unfortunately, you cannot understand what has happened." Marbles continued. "Not in your current state."

"What about your current state?" Inez asked. "Can't you see that the weapon has done something to you?"

"Yes." Motherboard replied darkly.

"That Hacker has dome something terrible?" Inez asked, backing up.

"Of course." Marbles said, as he and Digit followed her.

"Doesn't that bother you?" Inez pressed.

"Why should it bother us?" Digit asked. "For that matter, why would Hacker be such a problem for us at all?"

Inez gaped in shock at the cybird, but suddenly understood. Hacker's weapon wasn't meant to destroy anything. The energy, whatever it was, caused this. Turned her friends evil, and worse still, loyal to Hacker it seemed.

Inez was still backing up, not liking the direction things were going at all. Then another thought came to her suddenly, only adding to her fears.

"Where are Matt and Jackie?" she demanded. "What have you done to them?"

"We have done nothing to them." Motherboard replied.

"In fact, we're right here."

Inez whirled around and saw her two fellow earthling friends standing behind her blocking the door. They stood purposely with their arms folded, and it was clear that they were not going to let Inez go through that door.

Inez's worse fear had been confirmed. And what proved that was the fact that both Matt's eyes and Jackie's eyes were glowing with that same, eerie, blood red color...


	7. Escape

Chapter title sums it up nicely. "Backup Support" referred to, as well as Star Trek briefly (because I just couldn't resist. :p)

7.

Escape

Inez glanced around, knowing that she was currently in grave danger. It seemed she was the only one on all of Control Central that was still good. Glancing around at the ten glowing red eyes that surrounded her, Inez tried to think of a way to escape.

"Let me through." Inez said to Jackie and Matt, who still stood guarding the door.

"No." Matt replied bluntly. "You can't be allowed to escape."

"You see, Inez, since you are not like us, you are a danger to us all." Marbles said, taking a step closer.

"You mean a threat to Hacker." Inez pressed, the beginnings of an escape plan coming to mind.

"It's all the same to us, Inez." Jackie said.

"Not to me." Inez stated defiantly.

"And that is where the problem lies." Motherboard said from the other end of the room. "It must be corrected."

"Not on your life." Inez said.

"Unfortunately, that isn't your choice, Nezzie." Matt said, drawing Inez's attention momentarily.

It was then that Digit lunged at Inez and tackled her. Inez yelped as she fell to the ground, and fought Digit, as the cybird tried to pin her down. Using the freaky red eyes as a reminder that Digit wasn't in his normal state, Inez desperately fought back, trying to get leverage. Marbles rushed forward, possibly to help Digit, so Inez lashed her legs out at Marbles, making the doctor back up.

Then Inez grabbed Digit by the wingtips, used her greater size to her advantage, and swung the cybird at Matt and let go. Matt did not see it coming, and Digit slammed into him, knocking both over into a heap, leaving the door partly unguarded. Picking herself up, Inez raced through the door, avoiding Jackie as she lunged at her.

Now in the corridor, Inez ran blindly, trying to decide where to go from here. Naturally, there was only one logical place, and that was the hanger bay, where the cybercraft were stored. That was her only hope of escape now. Turning suddenly and heading down the necessary corridors, she tried to ignore the sound of pounding footsteps that were following her, constantly growing nearer.

She ran on, ignoring her exhaustion from the effort, among other things. Every time she passed a computer monitor of some sort, Motherboard's face was there, her eyes glowing brightly.

"Do not resist, Inez." Motherboard said every time Inez passed. "It is pointless."

"Not yet, it's not." Inez would reply with a determined look.

Finally, she reached the hanger bay, and, out of habit, raced straight for the four-seater cybercoop, the craft the Cybersquad would normally use. But she froze when she saw Matt standing at the doorway. Somehow he had arrived there before she did.

"You know what they say on _Star Trek, _Inez." Matt said idly, but darkly. "Resistence is futile."

Inez skidded to a halt, and started to head for another cybercraft, but found her path cut off by Marbles, Digit, and Jackie, advancing quickly. Inez turned and headed for a control panle that sat in the middle of the room. Unsure what to do now, she began pressing random controls on it. Subconsciously she noticed that she had engaged the autopilot on one cybercraft and saw a message pop up on the panel's screen, saying something in regard to the autopilot, but Inez saw that the others were coming towards her and pressed enter without reading it.

Once that was done, the two-seater cybercoop, the one with the sporty tail fin and the sunroof, roared to life on the other side of the room, and began to inch it's way towards the doorway, gaining speed in preparation to take off. At that moment, Matt lunged at Inez. Inez avoided it by throwing herself over the control panel, and made a mad dash for the leaving cybercoop.

Jackie and Digit suddenly appeared before her, armed with laser pistols, and did not hesitate to open fire. Ducking the shots, Inez changed course, and climbed up a staircase and up onto a little platform that ran along one side of the room, Matt closely following.

Her heart pounding, Inez hurried to catch up with the cybercoop, about to take off at any moment, glancing at it repeatedly, knowing the odds for her success being not good. She waited until the last possible moment, then, just as Matt began to catch up with her, vaulted herself over the side of the platform and jumped down onto the cybercoop.

She made it, landing on the craft's tail portion, and collapsed to her knees. She felt the craft start to rise into the air, and quickly climbed through the craft's open sunroof and into the craft itself. Finally, the cybercoop was airborne, and zipped out into Cyberspace. Laser fire lashed out at the craft, but did little damage, and soon Inez was remotely safe once again, some meters from Control Central.

Inez glanced at the controls before her, familiarizing herself with them. Something on the panel started to beep, and realizing it was the craft's tracking device, crushed it's antenna with her foot to disable it. Forcing herself to take a few deep breaths to calm herself down, Inez reviewed the last few moments back in her mind, and slapped the horn on the cybercoop in anger at Hacker for causing this.

She was all alone now. The fate of Cyberspace rested with her, and she had no one to help her anymore. There was no way she could stop Hacker all on her own, not without help. So, first matter of business, get help.

The first people to come to mind was Lara, Peter, and Alex, kids like herself from the Real World who had recently joined into a kind of "backup" Cybersquad. They could help, Inez knew it, but quickly ruled them out. She'd need a portal to get them here, and the only way she knew to get one was through Motherboard back at Control Central, the place she had just fled from.

In fact, until this was all resolved, all of the Real World was cut off from her. Which meant she could never return home until she had stopped Hacker. As a result, she again cursed Hacker for getting her into this mess before returning to the matter before her.

With the Real World cut off, that meant that the only source of help she could expect was from Cyberspace. But that presented a few problems in of itself. Inez didn't know what other cybersites Hacker had hit with his mysterious weapon other than Control Central, if any at all. And she didn't want a repeat of what happened at Control Central.

Then there was the matter of travel time. Without portals, traveling long distances across Cyberspace would take time, time Hacker could use to use his weapon to take over Cyberspace. That immediately ruled out several of the Cybersquad allies, such as Slider on Radopolis, a cybersite that was on the other side of known Cyberspace from Inez's current position.

Speaking of which, what _was _Inez's position? She checked, glancing at the monitor sitting next to her. It was then she remembered that the craft was on autopilot, meaning that the craft had some destination in mind, and she'd better find out what. She was surprised to see that it was Frogsnorts, but then remembered that was the last location the autopilot had been set to. Thus the message Inez vaguely remembered popping up on the control panel back at Control Central. It was asking if she wanted to use the last programmed coordinates, and Inez, desperate to get out of there, said yes.

So she was going to Frogsnorts, and now that she thought about it, it was a good idea. Frogsnorts was relatively close by, and she had friends there, such as Shari, who would be more than willing to help. But that left only one final question. Motherboard was no doubt tracking her current position, tracing her path to Frogsnorts, and would either send the rest of the Cybersquad after her, or give Hacker the heads up. So the question was, could she get there before the others did?


	8. Frogsnorts Again

Building the suspense... ;)

8.

Frogsnorts Again

Inez had nothing to do during her ride to Frogsnorts but wait and hope things would work out in the end. She would need luck on her side. But that could prove to be problematic, since it seemed her luck has ran out, considering all that has happened. Then again, it could be perceived that her luck is going strong, considering everything that has happened. It really bounced both ways.

But what she really needed was straight good luck, and not a mixture of the two. Because, as she saw it, that would be the only thing that would get her out of this mess. She then chuckled, because for some odd reason, this thought reminded her of the time Hacker had collected all of the good luck charms of Cyberspace and became super lucky. Inez grinned at the memory.

Things seemed so much simpler back then. Back then, Hacker's various plans to take over Cyberspace seemed more comical, and were much easier to defeat, often doing so without putting her own life on the line. Then Hacker, at some point, simply snapped, and completely lost it.

Inez didn't know what could have caused it. It might have been a whole variety of things built up over time. But in her mind, it was the retrieval of the Encryptor chip and the eventual curing of Motherboard's virus that did it, for shortly after that, Hacker's plans became more daring, more deadly...

...and more successful.

In retrospect, Inez suddenly realized just how many close calls they've been having lately, each one seeming to be a closer call than the last. The cyberbreech Hacker created that nearly tore apart Cyberspace for example. Or the time Hacker laid siege to Pompedoria and nearly blew the site up with a Cyantian energy enhancer, an explosion that would've taken most of Cyberspace with it had it gone off. In fact, it seemed like the only mission that wasn't a close call as of late was the time Matt got turned into a mouse. That was simply just a weird mission, hands down.

And now there was this. Hacker being armed with a weapon capable of turning whole cybersites evil. It wasn't unlike the time when Hacker convinced Wicked into casting the cure of the mean green on Motherboard, causing Motherboard to turn whole cybersites mean and green at random. The difference with that and now was the fact that there was no green involved, no magic involved, just technology, and curse of the mean green seemed to not effect the Cybersquad and Digit.

But not this time around, and as a result, most of the Cybersquad was currently evil.

It was something Inez was going to have to fix. But how?

* * *

When Inez arrived at Frogsnorts, she was pleased to find it was still good, and that there was no Grim Wreaker in sight. She still had a chance then.

Taking the controls from the autopilot, Inez landed the cybercraft outside the academy's front door and powered it down. Hopping out, she ran up to the large double doors and pounded the knocker loudly.

Unsurprisingly, it was Professor Stumblesnore who answered, the head professor of the entire academy. He glanced down at Inez.

"Why, this is a pleasant surprise...Inez, was it?" the elderly wizard asked.

Inez nodded quickly, in too much of a hurry for idle chit-chat. "I need to see..." she began, but Stumblesnore cut her off.

"Shari, correct?" he guessed correctly. "I'm afraid Shari is preoccupied at the moment. Since classes were let out early today, an impromptu game of broom racing was started to keep the students busy."

"Cancel it." Inez said, peering skyward to look for the Grim Wreaker. "In fact, cancel everything, and get everybody to evacuate the cybersite immediately."

"Evacuate?" Stumblesnore repeated. "Why would we...?"

"It's Hacker." Inez said, pushing her way inside anxiously. "He's got a kind of super weapon that allows him to turn whole cybersites evil. He's already hit Control Central. I'm the only one who was there that's still good."

Stumblesnore paused for a moment to process all of this. He did not doubt Inez's word though. "I'm sorry." he said.

Inez shrugged it off though, knowing time was short. "Hacker's no doubt been tipped off that I'm here, and as a result, he'll attack here next. He _cannot _risk letting me roam free. I'm sorry for bringing you all trouble, but I needed help, and..."

"Don't worry, I'll see to it that you get that help." Stumblesnore said purposefully, striding forward. "Get Shari. She's on the third floor, the third dormitory on the right."

Inez nodded, and raced off up a nearby flight of stairs. Shortly thereafter, Stumblesnore's voice echoed through the castle, explaining the situation, and requesting everybody to leave the cybersite immediately, by any means possible, save for a select few that Inez guessed Stumblesnore wanted to keep on hand to help defend the site should Hacker arrived before everyone was safely off the site.

Inez raced onward, avoiding the stream of wizards and witches that piled into the corridors in the mad rush to flee the site. Fortunately, Inez did not have to go the entire way to Shari's dormitory, for Shari came to her.

"Inez!" Shari exclaimed, as they nearly collided in all of the hustle and bustle. "I just heard, and came as quickly as possible!" she pulled out her wand from the pocket of her robes. "Is Control Central really under Hacker's control?"

Inez nodded.

"Matthew? Jackie?" Shari asked next, clearly dreading the answer.

Inez shook her head.

Shari hung her own head for a moment, then inhaled sharply. "C'mon." she said decisively "It's up to us to save them, then."

And Shari lead the way back the way Inez came and to the front doors of the academy. Students were piling through the door, all of them frightened and panicked. Inez felt guilty, since it was because of her that this had to happen, but she didn't know what else to do.

"Shari! Inez! Over here!" Stumblesnore suddenly called out from within the crowd.

Inez and Shari squeezed their way through to him. Standing with Stumblesnore was a small party of other wizards, all armed with wands.

"Meet your bodyguards." Stumblesnore stated.

"Bodyguards?" Shari asked, surprised.

"Should Hacker arrive before you two escape, they will buy you two more time _to _escape." Stumblesnore explained, then added, "I wish I could send you away with more help, but I can't spare anybody until the site is evacuated, and you need to leave immediately. Furthermore, Inez came in a cybercraft only big enough for two, and there isn't time to come up with another, larger, one."

"You're doing your best." Inez assured the elderly wizard. "Just doing this much is helping guarantee us stopping Hacker. All I can say is thank you."

"I only wish I could do more." Stumblesnore pressed. "Inez, you are a member of the Cybersquad, and you along with your friends have saved Cyberspace from fates worse then death several times. And Shari, you have such a promising future in the magic world...I hate to see you both have to go at this alone." he then straightened, gathered himself up, and added, "But we don't have time for this. Get going, sharpish now!"

Inez and Shari nodded, and raced out the door, their bodyguards following, encircling the two girls.

"Protect those two no matter what!" Stumblesnore shouted out as they left. "With your lives, if you must! The fate of everything rests with them at the moment!"

"Oh corks, talk about no pressure." Shari muttered as they jointly raced for the waiting cybercraft.

Then someone shouted the very last thing Inez wanted to hear.

"Look out! It's the Grim Wreaker!"

Looking upward, Inez saw the dark ship descend out of the sky and stop to hover directly over the Frogsnorts Academy, the weapon already charging. The bodyguards immediately stopped in their tracks and began casting a wide variety of spells at the ship, trying to deny the inevitable, drowning out the panicked shouts from all around them. Inez and Shari leapt into the cybercraft, Inez in the driver's seat, starting the craft and going airborne.

Inez urged all she could out of the craft's engines as Shari squeezed the arms of her chair nervously. Both were peering into the rear view mirrors at the sight behind them. The Wreaker took position above the cybersite, not being affected much by the spells being cast at it, waited for the weapon to finish charging, then fired it straight down at the academy. A red light flashed out, then a chaotic wave of evil energy spread outward like a bubble, rapidly engulfing the site and coming closer to the fleeing cybercraft.

Inez pressed further on the throttle, wishing the craft to go faster, as the site's barriers came into view. The wave came ever closer, and for a moment Inez thought they wouldn't be able to outrace it. But then, with a suddenly flash of light, they exited the site's boundaries, the wave of energy going no further than that.

Shari and Inez heaved a sigh of relief, and looked back.

In time to see the Wreaker reorient itself and chase after them, lowering it's laser cannon in preparation to fire...


	9. The Secret of the Crystals

Title pretty much sums it up, tho there is some action mixed in.

9.

The Secret of the Crystals

Inez instinctively stomped down on the throttle, and was thrown backwards slightly when the cybercraft suddenly surged forward. The first shot the Wreaker fired missed them by inches. Inez then grabbed the controls and began to weave the cybercraft around in seemingly random patterns, trying to evade Hacker's fire.

"He's firing again!" Shari exclaimed, who was keeping an eye on the Wreaker so Inez could focus on driving. "To the left!"

Inez veered right, and the fired shot of laser energy instead smashed into a small satellite that orbited Frogsnorts. Inez then glanced in her rear view mirror, and saw that hacker's super weapon had almost finished recharging. No doubt Hacker intended to fire it at their cybercraft. Inez leaned forward, trying to coax more speed out of the cybercraft.

Shari noticed Hacker's super weapon gearing up to fire as well, and glanced at Inez. "This craft is much smaller than the Wreaker, we should be able to go much faster!" she exclaimed, slightly panicked. "Yet the Wreaker's keeping up?"

"You forget, the Wreaker has more power, and can channel it into it's engines and accelerate it to our speeds and counteract it's larger mass." Inez explained quickly.

She scanned their surroundings for shelter, and found nothing but empty cyberspace. Inez inwardly groaned, cursing her luck. The _last _few times she had gotten into a game of cat and mouse with the Grim Wreaker, there had always been something nearby to hide behind, like a debris field or something. But not this time. The cybercraft was essentially a sitting duck.

"I need more speed!" Inez growled, frustrated she couldn't get this cybercraft to go any faster.

Shari looked thoughtful. "Maybe I can help." she said, and pulled off a cover on the dashboard, looking inside the opening at the circuitry within. Then, pulling out her wand and sticking it inside the opening, she muttered a spell and cast it.

Both Shari and Inez were thrown back into their seats and pressed into them as the cybercraft suddenly surged forward, reaching speeds it had never reached before. The timing couldn't have been better, too, for it was at that moment Hacker fired his super weapon, firing at the spot the cybercraft was at before it suddenly accelerated, and thus missed entirely.

Inez would've grinned, but they were speeding forward too quickly for it to be permitted. Too many g's pushing against her. She could barely steer. The Wreaker was struggling to compensate for this sudden burst of speed, too, firing at the little craft with it's laser cannon, but constantly underestimating it's location and missing.

It was then that Inez saw it. Some kind of cyber junk the same size as a large asteroid. Getting an idea, she turned sharply to the right, which, at those speeds, exerted a lot of stress of the craft and it's occupants. Shari let out a yell of discomfort, but Inez ignored it, trying to focus on steering, but nearly blacking out instead. Regardless, the turn was made, and they now surged towards the random piece of cyber junk.

Inez went to steer the cybercraft behind the object, and try and hide there. Hacker must have figured this out, for his shots became more frequent and random, knowing he was running the risk of losing the cybercraft yet again. As the cybercraft skimmed over the object's top, a blast from the Wreaker's laser cannon narrowly missed the cybercraft, and struck the object. A large cloud of debris was thrown upward, engulfing the cybercraft momentarily.

It worked to their advantage, hiding the craft from the Wreaker's view as Inez ducked it behind the asteriod-like object, and landing it on the object's backside, powering everything off to avoid detection.

Then, for the first time in several moments, silence fell. Shari and Inez looked at one another anxiously. Then, without warning, the Grim Wreaker slid past one side of the piece of cyber junk, frightfully close. But the Wreaker did not see the cybercraft and zoomed on out into Cyberspace, and was soon lost from sight.

Again, Shari and Inez heaved sighs of relief.

"That was too close." Shari remarked, breathing heavily.

"It's been nothing but close calls for me all day." Inez added, and upon waiting a moment longer just in case the Wreaker came back, took off again and headed in the opposite direction the Wreaker had taken.

"So, now wot?" Shari asked, puzzled.

"We stop Hacker." Inez replied.

"And how do you propose we do _that_?" Shari asked, annoyed.

"Look, I've been making up this plan as I go along!" Inez exclaimed, her frustration boiling over. "I do_ not _need to be reminded at the fact that I don't have a good plan! _Do YOU have any good ideas_?"

And with that, Inez threw her head down on the cybercraft's steering wheel, the horn honking once as a result.

Startled by Inez's outburst, Shari was silent for a moment. Then she asked a very simple and honest question. "How are we supposed to undo wot hacker has done, anyway?" she asked.

"There must be a way." Inez muttered.

"If only we knew more about how this super weapon works, and it's individual components." Shari thought out loud.

Inez suddenly looked up, and idea coming to her. "Individual components...why, that's it!"

"Wot's it?" Shari asked, confused.

"Where we're going next." Inez replied, bringing the cybercraft around and heading it in the direction she wanted it to go. "Cyantis."

* * *

By the time they arrived at the former home of the Founders of Cyberspace, Inez had told Shari about the existence of the underground data core that had been found, and explained that it contained key information about Cyantian power crystals, the most vital part of Hacker's super weapon. Most likely the information they need to know about how Hacker had rigged the super weapon, and, more importantly, how to reverse it, would be there.

Shari was convinced that the Wreaker would be there, waiting for them, though, since going to Cyantis seemed to be obvious. But when they arrived, they discovered that the site was abandoned as usual, with no ship anywhere in sight except for themselves.

"Mother B must not be tracking us anymore." Inez thought aloud. "Perhaps that wild goose chase earlier helped in more ways than we thought."

Shari didn't look convinced, but she didn't say anything.

Inez landed the cybercraft in the little clearing, and silently led Shari down into the underground chamber and into the data core itself. The system booting up immediately as they entered, Inez sat down at one console, and typed in a search parameter for power crystals. She immediately got results.

"All right, here we go." she said, and began reading aloud. "'Power crystals provide power for common Cyantian devices,' yadda-yadda..."

"'Can last up to a single century if used at half-power,' blah, blah, blah..." Shari said, also reading aloud.

"'The crystals contain both positive and negative energy,' yadda-yad--wait, what?"

Inez scrolled back up again and re-read the passage, saying it out loud. "'The crystals contain both positive and negative energy.'" she said, suddenly interested. "'Commonly, these energies are used jointly in the power crystals, but can be modified to use only one of these two energies, favoring one over the other. This is done by simply feeding the crystal a certain frequency, which tells it to either use only positive energy, or negative energy.'"

Inez and Shari glanced at each other briefly, before Inez continued reading. "'See note'...note...note, ah! 'Note: Positive and negative energies have been proven to have varying effects on their surroundings. Positive energy will tend to be more substantial, and more fuel-efficient. Negative energy, however, it more powerful, and by some, is the more favored. But it must be used cautiously, for negative energy is also the more destructive, and it has been theorized that there are other unfortunate side-effects about the energy.'"

"Bet you my wand that those 'side-effects' are turning things evil." Shari said with a frown.

"It would make sense." Inez said, scrolling through the text further. "Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything on what those side-effects could be."

"But now we know how Hacker did it, don't we?" Shari pointed out. "He changed the frequencies on the power crystals to use only negative energy. Channel it out in shots, like a weapon, and you have his super weapon."

"We also know how to undo it." Inez added. "Change the frequency to positive and then fire again at the affected cybersites. And here's the frequency we need to upload into the power crystals to tell them to do that." She found a small diagram and various other factors that would be needed. She felt around for her SKWAK pad, so she could upload this information to it, only to remind herself that she had lost it. She instead found a pencil and an empty candy wrapper, so she used that instead to jot down the basics.

Meanwhile, Shari had been thinking. "When Hacker fires his super weapon at a cybersite, it effects the entire cybersite, wotever's on it, and wotever is connected to it, correct?"

"Uh-huh." Inez replied, distracted.

"Would the connections a Cyberspace power station has with other cybersites apply to that?"

Inez looked up. "Yes."she replied, stunned, then pivoted her seat around to face Shari. "Suppose Hacker were to hit a power station next." she asked rhetorically. "What would happen?"

"Hacker would take the power station, and wotever it's connected to." Shari replied glumly.

Inez thought for a moment more. "How many cybersites is a power station connected to?" she asked.

"Everyone that's in it's same sector of Cyberspace." Shari replied.

"That's a quarter of the entire cybergalaxy!" Inez exclaimed, doing the math. "With only four shots, Hacker could take entire control of known Cyberspace, and then some!"

Shari's eyes widened. "Do you think that's where he's heading next?"

"If Hacker really is the genius he claims to be, then yes." Inez replied, standing and heading for the door. "We have got to get off this site. And no more landing on cybersites. It's too risky. Hacker could take them all at any moment..."


	10. Reading Between The Lines

10.

Reading Between The Lines

Out of all the many rooms the Grim Wreaker has, there is only one that Buzz and Delete have never stepped foot into. Hacker's laboratory. The two robots have occasionally speculated what could be in there, but the only clues they ever get is when Hacker actually reveals to them what his next evil plan is as he carries it out. Then they simply know what equipment Hacker would most likely be using in order to carry out that plan.

And since Hacker's evil plans would change nearly every week, these little bits of data were pretty much useless. Furthermore, Hacker as of late had been leaving Buzz and Delete in the vague about most of his plans, never revealing them fully until they were about to be carried out, or already being carried out.

So, they had no real clue what was in that laboratory, much less what went on in there. But being the lackeys they were, they figured it simply wasn't their place to know, and avoided the area as instructed. So whatever Hacker did in there remained a mystery to all but Hacker.

As the Grim Wreaker hovered near Cyberspace Power Plant Alpha, it was in this laboratory that Hacker could be found, working. And not just on anything. Even though the current evil plan he was conducting with his superweapon, he was actually working on an entirely _different _evil plan. And, even more shocking, this plan held higher priority than his _current _evil plan.

There was much more to what Hacker was doing to take over Cyberspace than what met the eye.

Currently, he was working on a peculiarly large device that occupied most of the laboratory at the moment. It's exact purpose was unknown to all minus, again, Hacker. Wielding plates of metal together, he stared determinedly at what he was working on, his expression under the protective mask he wore as he wielded a neutral one. It was very difficult to determine what the villain was thinking.

On a computer terminal not far away, a certain segment of data downloaded from the hidden Cyantian data core was being displayed. Several complex equations and diagrams were included on the display. Few would understand what it meant, as it included a science invented by the Founders of Cyberspace. The only cyborgs not Founders who understood the basics of this science fully was Dr. Marbles, Motherboard, and, of course, Hacker himself.

But it was vital he knew this data, for his success on this secret evil plan depended upon it.

A console bleeped. Hacker, hearing it, immediately stopped wielding, raised his wielder's mask, and stepped over to the console, pressing a button.

"What?" he asked harshly.

"It's an incoming communication from Control Central, Boss." came Delete's frightened voice over the intercom. "It's Motherboard giving her report."

Hacker glanced at a nearby clock, annoyed. "Patch it through, and do it _right _this time, you...you..." Hacker trailed off with a sigh, his mind too distracted and jumbled up at the moment to think up a good insult. "Just patch it through." he repeated.

Delete did not reply, but a moment later, Motherboard's face flickered into view. Her glowing red eyes indicated she was still very much under the effects of Hacker's superweapon.

"Hacker, the convicts arrived at Cyantis as predicted, but left just as quickly." Motherboard said in her unnatural evil tone. "You did not strike the site with the superweapon as planned."

"That's because it _wasn't _the plan!" Hacker roared, getting enraged quicker than usual, even for him.

"But they are en route for the Wreaker." Motherboard continued calmly, undisturbed by Hacker's exclamation. "They will attempt to board and stop..."

"This I know!" Hacker interrupted, again yelling. "I _want _them to come here. Only two things will happen here today. That A, the more unlikely, that those deliberate dunce-buckets I call my lackeys will actually do their jobs right for once, and I have nothing to worry over. Or B, the much more likely, those two will be the goody-goody two shoes that they are and do what their names live up to in Cyberspace."

Motherboard frowned as she processed this information. "That is illogical." she finally deduced. "Option B will not permit you to gain control of Cyberspace as you wish."

"But what you don't know is that I have a plan B already, for when that happens." Hacker said, grinning for the first time.

Motherboard clearly remained puzzled, as she should as she did not hold all of the cards like Hacker did. But, wisely, she chose to not pursue the matter.

"How much longer until those two get here, anyway?" Hacker asked, removing his mask and gloves, knowing he'd probably have to set aside his secret project for the moment.

"Unknown." Motherboard replied. "Unfortunately, I was unable to track them as they left Cyantis."

"Then _guess_." Hacker prompted, annoyed.

"ETA is thirty minutes." Motherboard replied promptly. "According to all available information."

"Good enough." Hacker said. Plenty of time to be ready in case they turn up early. "Anything else?"

"Not at this time." Motherboard replied.

"Then go away." Hacker demanded, turning his back to the display. "I have work to do."

A click told him that Motherboard had obeyed. Secretly, he grinned, enjoying the idea of being able to give his longtime nemesis orders like that. Too bad it wouldn't last, if he played his cards right.

Shaking his head to attempt to focus on the task on hand, he stepped over to where two laser pistols sat, plugged into a wall, recharging. But instead of being fed typical energy, the pistols were receiving negative energy from the negatively charged Cyantian power crystals. Unplugging them, Hacker looked them over, grinning at the idea of what the pistols were capable of doing now...

* * *

"There's the power plant." Inez said, pointing.

Shari looked up and glanced at the slowly spinning plant; more of a structure like a space station than a cybersite. Then her eye caught something else.

"And there's Hacker." she said, pointing at the Grim Wreaker hovering nearby. "We were right."

Inez bit her lip as their cybercraft zoomed closer to the Wreaker. "I wish there was some way to use stealth to get close to the Wreaker, safely." she muttered. "Shari, is there some kind of spell you could cast to turn the cybercraft invisible?"

Shari pondered the question for a moment. "I know a basic spell that works something like that, but I've never used it on something like a cybercraft. Dunno if it'd work."

"Better not risk it then." Inez said, slowly bringing the cybercraft closer to the Wreaker. "If you were to cast it, and it didn't work right, it might just make things worse."

"Right." Shari agreed promptly. "Besides, that is one of the spells I've always had the most problems with."

Inez brought the cybercraft to hover above and just behind the Wreaker, looking down at it's upper hull. The larger ship made no apparent moves or anything to indicate it saw the cybercraft, so Inez slowly edged the cybercraft on, being extra cautious. Moving only a few feet a minute, Inez eventually brought the cybercraft to hover directly over the Wreaker, then slowly lowered it down to land directly on top of the ship.

Inez and Shari waited a moment, to see if they had been detected. Apparently they hadn't though, for everything about the Wreaker remained the same.

"Let's hope the Wreaker doesn't make any sudden moves." Inez said, popping the canopy of the cybercraft open and cautiously stepped out onto the metal hull of the Wreaker.

Shari followed suit, and looked around. "Now wot?" she asked.

"Now we figure out a way inside." Inez said, pulling a laser pistol out of the cybercraft. "I know there's more than one out here."

They looked around, but saw nothing but seemingly solid metal plating.

"Shari, do you know a spell that could help us find a door?" Inez asked.

Shari nodded, and brandished her wand. "Magic spell, don't be a bore, please show me the door." she whispered.

Her wand flared once, then the outlines of four doors on the roof of the Grim Wreaker began to glow. Inez glanced around and looked at them.

"That one's a sunroof, leading into the observatory." Inez said, pointing at one towards the front of the craft, remembering the layout of the ship from the many times she had snuck around on it. "It could work, but it would be dangerously close to the Wreaker's command deck, and there's always trouble there." she looked around, and pointed at the outline of another doorway. "That one we can't go through, because that is where a metal appendage would pop out. It's not meant for anyone to go through, and probably doesn't lead anywhere. And that one is a service elevator, and would probably lead us directly to either Buzz or Delete, if not both." she added, pointing at the outline of another door on the other side.

"So that leaves this one." Shari said, approaching the fourth door, which sat in the back. "Where does it lead?"

"It's a maintenance shaft, I believe." Inez said, joining Shari, and looking for a door control to open it. "Since the Wreaker should be in near mint condition, it'll be completely abandoned, and will lead to several decks."

Finding the control, a small button sitting next to the door, Inez pressed it, and the door slid open. Peering inside, they saw a very long shaft leading down, a ladder running along one wall.

Inez sighed, bracing herself for this. "Okay, here's the plan." she said to Shari. "So far, it seems like Hacker doesn't know we're here yet, but he's most likely expecting us. The superweapon is in the lowest deck, so we'll want to follow this shaft all the way to the bottom, and hope it'll get us there. Hopefully we'll be able to avoid most of Hacker's security that way. Then, we just have to avoid getting caught until we set the polarity on the power crystals from negative to positive."

"What about sites that have been hit by the superweapon, like Control Central and Frogsnorts?" Shari asked.

"I figure that once we have the polarity on the power crystals switched, we just shoot the weapon at the power station." Inez said. "Frogsnorts and Control Central are both connected to this station, so they'll be switched from bad to good, as well as any other sites Hacker might have hit that we don't know about."

"Won't that tell Hacker exactly where we are, though?" Shari asked.

"It will." Inez admitted. "That's the bad part, but I can't see any way around it. So once we fire off the weapon, turn the sites good, we need to destroy _all_ of the power crystals really fast, and then hightail it out of there, and hope Hacker doesn't catch up with us."

"There are a lot of ifs in that plan." Shari pointed out.

"I know." Inez admitted, lowering herself down onto the ladder and starting to climb down. "I don't like it either. But like I said, we don't really have a choice."


	11. First Encounter

Inez and Shari work to stop Hacker and run into trouble. They chat about Matt's relationship with Shari. Oh, and Hacker gives his lackeys a new toy. ;)

11.

First Encounter

On the Grim Wreaker's command deck, Buzz and Delete sat at a table, slowly eating donuts, looking bored.

"I thought the idea of coming here was to shoot the boss's weapon at the power station and turn all the sites bad." Buzz remarked, picking his teeth and looking annoyed. "But so far, all we've done is sit here."

"And eat donuts." Delete added, eating a donut happily. "What's wrong with that, Buzzy?"

"Nothing, I guess." Buzz grumbled. "It just doesn't make sense, is all."

"I don't get it either." Delete admitted, grabbing another donut to eat. "But who cares? Could be worse."

Right at that moment, Hacker walked into the room, slamming the door open as he went.

"Buzz! Delete!" he exclaimed loudly.

Buzz and Delete snapped to attention, saluting like a soldier, scattering donuts everywhere. "Yes, boss?" they jointly asked.

"The Grim Wreaker is about to be infiltrated, if it hasn't already." Hacker explained, stopping to stand before the clumsy robots.

"In-fli-trated, Boss?" Delete asked, carefully sounding out the long and complicated word, to make sure he said it right.

"You mean by that earth brat we've been..." Buzz began to asked.

"Yes, that brat!" Hacker interrupted, annoyed. "I want you two to go down to the hanger bay where the superweapon is and stand guard. If you see anyone who shouldn't be there, shoot them with these."

He handed them a laser pistol apiece. Buzz and Delete stared at them.

"But boss, we've already got guns." Delete objected.

"Ah, but not like these!" Hacker said, looking proud of himself. "These pistols have been recharged with negative energy from the power crystals. For the first four or five shots, they will work just like a mini superweapon."

"Cool!" Buzz exclaimed in awe, waving his gun around, pointing it at imaginary targets.

Delete ducked when Buzz pointed it in his direction. "Careful Buzzy!" he exclaimed. "I'm bad enough as is!"

"Enough chatter!" Hacker roared. "Go now! You don't have all the time in the world, you know!"

"Yes boss!" Buzz and Delete exclaimed together again.

Saluting once more, they ran off to carry out the job bestowed upon them. Once they had gone, hacker carefully walked around the mess his lackeys had left and approached a control panel, activating it.

"And now, to prepare to fire my superweapon at our target..." Hacker mumbled to himself, typing in commands...

* * *

Inez and Shari carefully walked through the empty corridors of the Wreaker.

"It certainly is quiet." Shari noted, nervous.

"Too quiet." Inez agreed, gripping her laser pistol tighter. "I think we're going to run into trouble here soon."

They walked onward.

"Too bad Matthew isn't here." Shari remarked. "He would know a way to lighten us up."

"Well, he isn't here, Shari!" Inez exclaimed in a harsh whisper. "And besides, I know Matt. He'd make things worse."

"No, he would not!" Shari persisted. "Matthew is very smart!"

"Then how come _I'm _the only one who escaped Hacker's weapon?" Inez asked, harsher than she probably intended, but she did not want to have this discussion right now.

"It's not Matthew's fault he got turned bad." Shari pointed out. "How was he to know?"

"How come you can call him Matthew, anyway?" Inez asked out of sheer curiosity. "He hates it when I call him that."

"When do you call him that?" Shari asked, not recalling such a time.

"Whenever he calls me Nezzie." Inez admitted reluctantly.

"Well, he must not like it, because you call him that as a means to get back at him." Shari reasoned. "I don't."

"True." Inez said, realizing there was some logic to it. "But there has to be more to it than that. I mean, you two _are _pretty close."

Shari paused for a moment. "Wot does that mean?" she asked.

"That you and Matt are...well..." Inez trailed off, thinking she didn't need to say more.

"Matthew and I?" Shari asked, with a laugh. "Wot ever gave you that idea?"

"Well, it seems like when you're around, Matt focuses on you, and ignores everyone else." Inez said, feeling awkward. "Are you suggesting that there isn't anything going on between you two?"

"Not that I know of." Shari said. "We're just friends."

"Oh." Inez said, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Personally, I always thought there was something between Matthew and you." Shari said suddenly.

Inez glanced at Shari, but said nothing. "We're almost there." Inez said instead. "Just around this corner, I think."

They stepped around the corner and were immediately greeted by laser fire. The shots missed by a mile, but the message was clear, and Inez and Shari quickly ducked back behind the corner.

"It's Buzz and Delete!" Inez exclaimed. "They're standing guard, and they've got enhanced lasers, too!"

"I think I have an idea, then." Shari said, pulling out her wand. "Give me some cover fire."

Inez nodded, and poked her head around the corner and fired blindly at the two robots standing guard at a doorway. A yelp rang out, telling her one of her shots came closer than she thought, and a shot from Buzz was fired in retaliation. It was then that Shari jumped out from around the corner, brandishing her wand.

"Hot cross buns, here's a shot that stuns!" Shari annunciated, waving her wand in a vigorous slashing manner.

A wave of transparent green energy washed out from Shari's wand, and like a wave, surged down the hallway. The wave struck both bots, and they collapsed into a heap, unconscious.

"Cool!" Inez exclaimed, coming out of hiding. "That took care of them!"

"Yes, but it's only temporary." Shari said. "It'll wear off."

"Then we better hurry." Inez said, rushing into the room, which turned out to be the Wreaker's hanger bay. "Yes, here it is."

Sure enough, sitting where a cybercraft normally would, attached to a long, metal, arm, was Hacker's superweapon, completely retracted, and idle.

"Looks like we're in luck." Shari noted, as Inez climbed up a ladder on one side of the superweapon.

"Stand guard, Shari." Inez asked, pulling out the notes she took at Cyantis. "I'll see if I can take care of this."

Carefully scaling up the dormant superweapon to it's tip, where the power crystals were, Inez bent over to study the first crystal. She was trying to figure out how she was going to reverse the polarity, when the whole weapon suddenly shifted.

"Uh-oh." Inez muttered, hearing the sound of the hanger bay doors opening.

Then, without warning, the weapon started to sink downwards.

"Inez!" Shari cried out, racing to the edge of the open doors, but stopped when she realized there was little she could do now.

Inez simply sat there in shock, as the weapon sank lower, heading out the open doors and into open cyberspace. Inez felt her stomach jolt as gravity suddenly vanished, and she started to float away. Quickly, she grabbed the sides of the superweapon to keep herself in one spot.

The weapon sank lower, until it was several feet outside the Wreaker itself. It stopped with a sudden jolt. Just when Inez thought it was over, the weapon started to move again, but this time swinging around to point to the left oft he Wreaker. To point at the power station.

Inez gulped, seeing what was happening, and looked around for some means to stop what was going to happen next. As a low hum rang out as the superweapon began to charge, she spied a little control panel sitting near the closest power crystal, and worked her way towards it without letting herself float away in the lack of gravity.

But it was too late. The hum reached it's peak, and the crystals started to glow. They started off with a white glow, that quickly turned a deep red. Then, with a loud roar, the weapon fired, sending a beam of red energy at the power station. Inez watched helplessly as the beam struck the station, and released a wave of energy that washed over it. The wave reached the relays the station used to relay power to cybersites, and shot out into Cyberspace in tight beams of light. Within seconds, it was over.

Hacker now controlled one quarter of the cybergalaxy.


	12. Second Encounter

Yay, another Cyberchase fanfic destined to go over twelve chapters! Bit of a cliffhanger at the end of this chapter, too. The spell Shari uses in this chapter is pulled from Harry Potter. Dunno if I spelled it right, though. Anyway, enjoy. :)

12.

Second Encounter

For a long moment, Inez hung onto the powering down superweapon in a state of shock. She was finding it hard to believe that Hacker now controlled one-fourth of known Cyberspace. But he also had Control Central and Motherboard under his control now as well, meaning that he controlled _all _of cyberspace already. The only difference was that three-fourths of Cyberspace was under Hacker's control against their will.

But then Inez told herself she could change that still. And three-fourths of Cyberspace still having their own free will meant that there was still something to fight for. After having this thought, Inez finally shook off her shock, and went back to business, assessing the situation.

The superweapon had powered down completely now, but it had not moved from it's current position. Apparently Hacker was in no hurry to retract it again. This brought up a few problems, because now the power crystals that made the weapon work would be harder than ever to reverse the polarity on them. And it was directly exposed to the empty void of Cyberspace, which it's hospitality for supporting life varied and was unpredictable. Already there was no gravity. Where the position of the weapon to change ever so slightly, it could move to where there was no atmosphere either.

But Inez was quick to point out that the weapon was already in position to fire again, and so long as Hacker continued to leave it that way, he would have little warning of what Inez and Shari were up to until it was fired again. And by that point, Inez hoped it would be too late for Hacker to do anything to undo their hard work.

But then there was the red flag that went up in Inez's mind at the mere thought that the weapon had not been retracted or moved in any way. It wasn't like Hacker. Granted, Hacker hadn't been himself for sometime now, but still, it would take something pretty big to make Hacker leave his key to Cyberspace domination exposed like this. Inez had to wonder if Hacker knew that Inez and Shari were here already. Perhaps he had seen them.

In that case, time was short, time that had already been made short by the fact that the spell that currently had left Buzz and Delete stunned was wearing off.

"Shari!" Inez called out, hoping her voice carried. "Buzz and Delete are still out of it, right?"

"Right!" Inez heard Shari's voice echo back. "But they're starting to stir. Whatever you're going to do, do it quickly!"

"Will do!" Inez called, then added to herself, "As soon as I figure out how I'm going to do it."

She thought for a moment, clutching the superweapon tightly to keep from floating away in the zero gravity, and suddenly remembered the control panel she had seen just before the weapon had fired. Looking up ahead, where the nearest power crystal sat at the tip of the weapon, she could still see it. Quickly, she pulled herself towards it, careful to not go too fast, or lose control of her momentum and possibly loose her grip.

Upon reaching the control panel, she saw it was simple enough. As she had predicted, it was connected to the closest power crystal, and manipulated some of the Cyantian crystal's basic features. One of them, to Inez's delight, was the crystal's polarity. Thinking that this might be simpler than she first thought, Inez quickly glanced at her notes, still grasped tightly in her hand. She couldn't see them clearly, and thus loosened her grip enough so she could see them better.

This proved to be a mistake. The moment she did so, that hand lost it's grip on the superweapon entirely, and Inez started to float awkwardly upward. Panicked, she went to grab the superweapon again, and unwittingly let go of her notes in the process. Gasping as she saw them also start to float away, she reached up and snatched them back just before they slipped out of her reach. The inertia caused by this motion sped up her floating upward. Since one had still grasped the superweapon, she ended up flipping over, her back bumping into the superweapon, before flipping back again and regaining both of her handholds again.

Then again, maybe this _would _be as hard as she had thought.

Very carefully, she changed how she held her notes in her hand so she could seem them clearer, and studied them over, comparing the frequency of the positive polarity she wanted, and the negative polarity the crystals were already on. Very carefully, she had the hand not holding onto to notes let go of the superweapon, then quickly jammed her elbow into a little gap in the superweapon's construction, using it as a brace.

Seeing that this was working in keeping her in one place, Inez very carefully used her free hand and deleted the current frequency entered into the control panel and replaced it with the one she wanted. A moment later, a diagram portraying the frequency changed to mach it's new settings. Inez compared it with the rough sketch she had made of that frequency, and saw that they pretty much matched.

So that was one crystal down. After adjusting her position slightly to reach more control panels, another two followed suit. Three down, but there was still five more on the other side of the superweapon, where Inez couldn't reach them. After a moment of pondering on the problem, Inez was able to get another two by loosening her hold on the superweapon enough that she could stretch out and adjust their frequencies too. It was a dangerous way to do it, though, and Inez nearly lost her grasp twice.

Furthermore, she just couldn't reach the remaining three from this side of the superweapon. She'd have to get on the other side in order to adjust their frequencies. And the only way she saw that was to slowly crawl over to that side, while keeping a hold of the superweapon. Or, the quicker but more dangerous way, let go of the superweapon, and maneuver around in zero gravity and reach the other side of the superweapon.

Inez was more inclined to do the first idea over the second.

Meanwhile, Shari was still in the hanger bay, leaning over the railing and looking at the superweapon, as she tried to see Inez and find out what her friend was doing. But the superweapon was positioned in such a way that Inez just wasn't within her view. Still, Shari tired, anxious to hurry up and get this mission done.

She heard groaning behind her, and turned to see Buzz and Delete finally start to wake, sitting up and clutching their heads. They had yet to notice Shari, but the wizardess knew that wouldn't last for long.

"Inez!" she hissed, trying not to make sure Buzz and Delete didn't hear her. "Hurry up! Buzz and Delete are waking up!"

"What happened?" Shari suddenly heard Delete ask out loud, with a moan.

Shari grasped the handle of her wand closely.

"Here's your laser, DeeDee." Buzz said, and no doubt handed Delete his fallen weapon. "Hey! Is that who I think it is?"

Shari gulped, knowing she had been seen, and straightened, getting ready to turn to face the robots.

"It is!" Delete exclaimed.

"Then, shoot her!" Buzz exclaimed back.

It was then that Shari whirled around, brandishing her wand. "Protego!" she exclaimed.

Magical energy erupted from the end of Shari's wand, and curved around Shari to form a semi-bubble, acting like a shield. It was a good thing, too, for Buzz and Delete did not hesitate to fire, and their shots ended up bouncing off the shield just was it formed fully. For now, she was safe. But Inez had better hurry, because Shari couldn't keep the shield up forever.

From outside, Inez heard the commotion, and knew that time was short. Thus there was only one thing she could do now. Adjusting her position so that she pointed the other way now, she took and deep breath, and pushed off, floating towards the metal arm the superweapon was attached to like she was flying. Grabbing it, she awkwardly stopped herself, and repositioned herself again, crawling down the length of the arm to where it stopped just past the underside of the superweapon.

From here, Inez pushed off again, and, hoping she had aimed right, floated towards the end of the superweapon. Quickly, she reach out with both hands and latched onto the superweapon. Succeeding, she moved a little closer to the control panel, and began changing the frequencies for the final three power crystals.

On Shari's end of things, however, things where not going so well. Buzz and Delete, perhaps seeing that Shari couldn't keep her shield up forever, had kept firing their modified laser pistols at her. The shield was still holding the shots back, but Shari knew it was getting weaker. And she was at another disadvantage. While she was using her wand to project the shield, she couldn't use it to cast any other spells.

Another barrage of laser fire struck the shield, and this proved to be too much for the flimsy shield to handle, and it faded out. Shari, panicked, gasped, and motioned to cast a different spell. But Buzz fired his pistol again, seeing Shari's shield had dropped...

By this point, Inez had the frequencies on all of the crystals changed. Next time the superweapon fired, it would be shooting off positive energy, not negative energy. Inez didn't know how to fire the weapon again, but she hoped she could find out quickly and easily. Climbing back up the arm holding the superweapon in position, Inez sighed with relief as she re-entered the Wreaker's hanger bay and felt gravity return.

Reaching the top, she looked around for a moment, then jumped from the arm and grabbed a hold of the railing that ran around the open hanger doors. Climbing over them, she looked around. Everything seemed to be in order. But where was Shari? Finally, she saw the wizardess standing over in a corner, with her back turned.

"Shari, I'm done, we did it." Inez said, rushing up to her friend. "Where's Buzz and Delete?"

Shari didn't respond.

"Shari?" Inez asked hesitantly, and grabbed Shari's shoulder, turning her around.

She gasped and took several steps back as she saw that Shari's eyes were glowing blood red, and before Inez could recover from the shock, she was pounced upon from behind by Buzz and Delete...


	13. A Time To Hope

Inez finds herself in a tough situation. Again I tap into the possibility that Hacker has more planned than he's let on. ;)

13.

A Time For Hope

"Got 'em, Boss!" Buzz announced as he and Delete escorted Inez into the Wreaker's bridge.

Hacker whirled around, looking victorious. He grinned happily when he saw Shari had been successfully converted from good to evil with one of Buzz and Delete's modified laser pistols, and scowled at the imprisoned Inez.

"Good work you tin-plated dunce buckets, but I must ask..." Hacker stepped up to Inez and stared down at her. Inez stared back. "Why is she not under the influence of my superweapon, and the other is?" he asked.

"Ran out of shots, Boss." Buzz explained, looking slightly nervous.

"Yeah, Buzz used his last shot on her." Delete said, jerking his head at Shari.

Hacker sighed, but grinned again. "No matter." he said, taking the laser pistols back from Buzz and Delete. "At least we have her prisoner now, and the pistols can always be recharged."

Stepping across the room, he plugged the two pistols into the wall to recharge. Inez's eyes widened slightly, but then quickly went back to normal, so to not give herself away. An idea was starting to come to mind. There was still hope.

"You, go stand over there and await further orders." Hacker said to Shari, pointing.

Like a mindless robot, Shari obeyed, going over to stand at the designated spot, not moving a step further.

"Buzz, Delete!" Hacker said next, now moving to the middle of the room. "Bring the prisoner over here."

Buzz and Delete unwillingly dragged Inez to the middle of the room where Hacker waited.

"Fight all you want." Hacker said, seeing her fight. "But it won't do you any good. Cyberspace is as good as mine."

He pointed at the forward viewscreen in the center of the far wall. On it was a diagram of the cybergalaxy, and a quarter of it was filled in with red, indicating that Hacker now controlled that portion of Cyberspace. Inez looked away, as it was a cruel reminder that she was pretty much on her own again.

"Now see here, you." Hacker said once Inez was finally brought before him. "Give it up. Cyberspace is mine. Like it should be."

"Only one-quarter of it, Hacker." Inez spat.

"You earth brat!" Hacker exclaimed. "Always looking at the technical stuff! You forget, though, that I _already_ have control over Control Central. And with it, Motherboard! At the same moment I got control over her, Icontrolled Cyberspace! The only thing stopping me now, is getting the others to submit." from his pocket, he pulled out a little remote, and pointed it at the viewscreen. "But once I use my superweapon and strike the other power stations..." he pressed a button, and one by one, the other three quarters of Cyberspace turned red on the displayed diagram, "...that little problem will be gone."

Inez frowned, and again looked away from the viewscreen. "You forget one thing, however, Hacker." Inez said, a thought just coming to her. "Your method only affects cybersites and whatever is on them. Anything off-site or traveling in-between sites will remain unaffected. That is how I escaped your attack on Control Central _and _Frogsnorts. And if I can do it, so can others!"

"But _you _forget how few there are of you who have done that!" Hacker pointed out, pressing his face closer to Inez's. "Their numbers will be greatly decreased, and with Motherboard on my side, I will be able to pick off the stragglers one...by...one."

Inez pushed Hacker's chin out of her face. "You underestimate us, Hacker." she said. "Shari and I alone were able to cause you a great deal of trouble. Now there are more out there. Together, they will be able to do twice as much as we did."

Hacker snorted, and walked away.

"Give it up, Hacker!" Inez persisted. "No matter what, you will fail!"

"No I won't!" Hacker persisted, calling over his shoulder. "Cyberspace is mine _by right!_ Nothing will stop me!" he turned and shouted out at the room, at no one in particular, "You hear that?! CYBERSPACE IS MINE!"

Hacker's voice echoed in the large room, as a moment of silence fell. Hacker listened to the echoes of his own voice for a moment, then continued onward.

"Hacker, stop!" Inez continued, regaining her courage, fighting the grip Buzz and Delete had on her. "You can't win!"

"Yes I can!" Hacker said, grabbing something, and heading back. A laser pistol was now pointed at Inez's face, and this one was _not _modified. "Because _you _underestimate _me!_ You really think that this is all there, all that meets the eye?" he shook his head. "No, it isn't! There's more to this than you know, oh so much more. But you will never find out."

Inez glared at Hacker, seeing it was now or never. "Well good." she said. "Because I don't _care!_"

Without warning, she lashed out with her foot, and kicked the unfired laser pistol into the air. Before giving anyone in the room a chance to react, Inez then swung Buzz, the smaller and lightest of two robots, lifting him off the ground, and threw him into Hacker. By this point, the laser pistol had fallen out of the air, and hit Delete on the head. Subconsciously taking one hand off of Inez to rub at the sore spot, Inez used this chance to swung her fist at the robot's metal head.

Delete yelped when Inez's fist struck, and staggered away, dazed. Shaking her sore fist, she raced for the recharging laser pistols. But her path was blocked by Shari.

Brandishing her wand and pointing it at Inez, she exclaimed, "Hot cross buns, here's a spell that stuns!"

Inez quickly tried to leap out of the way of the wave of magical energy, put part of it struck her feet, regardless. She felt all tingly and weak as she hit the floor, suddenly unable to land her leap. Her mind went into a state of daze as she numbly watched the wave of energy to go on to strike Buzz and Delete fully, knocking them out. Hacker was able to duck behind his recharger chair, but he, too, was partly affected by the blast of mystic energy, and seemed to be in a state similar to Inez.

Shaking off the effects, Inez weakly stood, wobbling on her feet. Shari noticed, and cast another spell at Inez. Just barely dodging it, the spell zipped past Inez and struck a control panel behind her, destroying it. With a yelp, Inez ran for cover, Shari being slow to track her target. Getting an idea, Inez suddenly charged Shari, and slapped the wizardess's wand from her hand. Shari staggered back for a moment, then slowly walked off to retrieve it, as if there was no cause for alarm.

Satisfied she had a fleeting chance now, Inez once again went for the laser pistols being recharged, grabbing one, and going to point it at Shari, hoping it had been recharged with enough positive energy from the power crystals to work as desired. But before she could, a laser shot struck the pistol, and knocked the now-ruined device from Inez's hands. Whirling around, she saw Hacker had retrieved the fallen laser pistol Inez had knocked from his hand earlier, and was now pointing it at Inez.

Inez quickly dodged the next laser blast, and the blast struck a computer screen instead, shattering it. Again Inez sought shelter, as Hacker tried to line up a shot enough to hit Inez, but constantly missing. But only just barely. Inez presumed the reason Hacker was missing at al was because Shari's stunning spell was still affecting him slightly.

Diving behind a chair and using it as a shield, Inez looked around for something to help her. Her eyes fell on the control panel sitting next to her. On it was a large red button with the text "fire" sitting right over it. Without stopping to think that this might not even be what she thought it was, Inez slapped her hand down upon it, hearing something within the Wreaker start to charge...


	14. Turning the Tide

One more chapter to go after this one! Everything seems to be resolving themselves, but don't go jumping to conclusions just yet... ;)

14.

Turning The Tide

Outside the Grim Wreaker, the superweapon started to charge, the power crystals embedded in it's tip starting to glow with white light. Still pointing at the power station, it fired a large bolt of pure white energy, a big contrast to the red energy it had fired in the past. It struck the power station, sending the energy rushing through the structure and to it's relays.

Then, huge white bolts of energy were sent all across one fourth of the cybergalaxy, traveling to every cybersite within that one quarter of the cybergalaxy. All over this portion of Cyberspace, everything started to turn good again as the white positive energy washed over them. One such wave of energy washed over Control Central, and as it caressed through the site, the lighting within the site returned to normal, the aura of evil driven out, and all of the occupants within lost the evil red glow in their eyes, and resumed their normal characteristics.

Feeling slightly shocked, Matt, Jackie, Digit, and Dr. Marbles all bent over double, clutching their heads. Motherboard's screen flickered once or twice, and she shook her head.

"What happened?" Matt asked with a moan, his memory of being under the influence of Hacker's superweapon being foggy. "Is it what I think it is?"

"Is everyone all right?" Motherboard asked.

"I believe we will be, thank you Motherboard." Marbles replied, rubbing his own head. "Do _you _remember what has transpired?"

"Vaguely." Motherboard replied. "I do not like it."

"If I'm remembering things right, I don't like it either." Digit muttered.

Jackie suddenly gasped, realizing they were missing someone. "Where's Inez?" she asked, panicked.

"Inez?" Matt repeated, then, without thinking, replied, "She escaped." his eyes suddenly widened as he remembered vaguely what that implied. "Uh-oh." he said. "I think we owe Inez an apology."

"But if she escaped Hacker's attack, whatever it was, then where is she now?" Digit asked.

"And why has whatever Hacker's done been _un_done?" Jackie asked.

"I am searching for Inez now." Motherboard announced. "If she is where I believe she is, she could be in trouble."

* * *

Inez being in trouble was actually a bit of an understatement. The moment the superweapon fired, and Hacker realized he had just lost the quarter of the cybergalaxy he had worked so hard to obtain, he let out a yell and charged Inez. Inez gasped and went to flee, but Hacker proved to be too fast, grabbing her by the arm.

"You're mine!" Hacker exclaimed.

Inez dealt Hacker a punch to the chin, desperate to escape, but Hacker's grip held.

"Let me go!" Inez said, fighting and kicking as Hacker dragged her across the room.

Hacker just ignored her. "Buzz! Delete!" he shouted to his robotic henchmen, who were just starting to come to again. "I have a job for you!"

Inez still fought, until she saw that Hacker was dragging her very close to where the other modified laser pistol lay, still recharging. Using her free hand, she quickly grabbed it, and before Hacker could even notice, spun around, and pointed the pistol at Shari, who had retrieved her wand and was standing motionless to one side, and fired. A white bolt of energy zipped across the room, and struck Shari square in the chest, knocking her backwards.

Before Inez could look and see if the pistol had been recharged with enough positive energy to reverse the effects of the negative energy Shari had been exposed to, Hacker quickly grabbed Inez's other hand and whipped her around to face him. Inez struggled, and as a result, the pistol was fired a few more times into the ceiling. Inez saw the pistol was operating normally again, and tried to force it downward to point at Hacker.

Hacker resisted, preventing Inez to get a good aim. Getting frustrated, Inez kicked Hacker in the knee. Hacker winced, and his grip loosened just enough for Inez to wrench herself free and get some distance between her and Hacker. She then whipped back around and fired a few warning shots at Hacker telling him to keep back.

"Inez!" a voice suddenly called out.

Inez turned and saw Shari, back on her feet, pointing her wand at Inez. For one fleeting moment, Inez thought that Shari was still evil, but then Shari suddenly shifted her aim and pointed her wand straight at Hacker, Buzz and Delete rushing over to aide their boss.

"Blast! Fast!" Shari annunciated, and her wand released a large shockwave that knocked the trio of baddies backwards.

"Shari!" Inez exclaimed, relieved to have Shari back on her side. "We need to destroy the power crystals! Prevent this from happening again!"

Shari nodded, and fired off another spell.

"No!" Hacker exclaimed, and quickly tried to block the spell with his body, but the spell simply zipped around him.

Smashing out a window, the spell zoomed out into Cyberspace for a moment, then curved downward to face the superweapon and heading towards it. Suddenly the spell banged and split into eight parts. Each one of those eight parts zipped forward and struck a power crystal, shattering it instantly. Within moments, the power crystals were destroyed, and the superweapon rendered useless.

A warning message stating this was so appeared on the forward viewscreen, flashing violently to grab the attention of everyone in the room.

Seeing their mission complete, Inez turned to Shari. "Let's go!" she yelled, and raced for the nearest exit.

Shari quickly followed. Hacker let out a roar, and pursued them, his eyes showing that the villain was beyond enraged at the moment. Inez fired a shot at Hacker, and missed, but it caused Hacker to slow for a split second, just long enough for Shari and Inez to squeeze through a door and close it. Quickly shooting out the door's controls to prevent anyone from following them quickly, Inez grabbed Shari, and they rushed down the corridor.

They met no interference during their mad dash through the Wreaker, but they didn't slow down for an instant, knowing that there could be an enemy just around the next corner. Eventually, however, they returned to the Wreaker's roof where their cybercraft was still parked without event. Clambering into the craft, they took off and zoomed off in a random direction.

"Where are we going?" Shari asked.

"Anywhere, just as far from Hacker as we can get!" Inez replied, forcing the cybercraft to hit it's top speed.

Behind them, the Wreaker broke off of it's orbit around the power station, and moved to chase the little craft, lowering it's laser cannon. The first shot was a lucky hit, and damaged the craft's engines, slowing it significantly.

"He's going to fire again!" Shari yelled as she saw the Wreaker adjust the aim.

"We're done for!" Inez exclaimed, seeing that she had no way to avoid the shot in time.

Then, like a prayer being answered, a swirling pink portal opened in front of the cybercraft. Thanking Motherboard for her impeccable timing, Inez dove the cybercraft into the portal, just barely avoiding getting hit from a laser blast that would have destroyed the cybercraft. Once the portal closed, the Wreaker slowed to a halt.

Hacker vented his frustration at being stopped after coming so close to capturing Cyberspace once agin for some time. But then, finally, he came to his senses and a new look came to his eyes. Hope wasn't lost for him yet, he still had a way to get revenge...


	15. Homecoming

Last chapter, resolves a few things, but leaves a whole lot more hanging... ;)

15.

Homecoming

The portal led the cybercraft straight to the control room at Control Central. Quickly bringing the craft to a halt before it ran into something in the cramped room, Inez landed the craft and opened the cockpit. She was greeted by the warm glow of the lights back at their proper lighting, and her friends, all back to normal, their eyes glowing only with the delight that Inez and Shari had come back safely.

Thrilled by it all, Inez raced forward and grabbed the closest person to her, Matt, in a hug.

"Oh, um..." Matt said, blushing, and flabbergasted by the awkward situation.

"Thank goodness you're all back to normal!" Inez said with great relief.

"Well, um, thank goodness you were there to get us back to normal." Matt answered lamely. "And that you're safe."

"Indeed." Motherboard added from her screen. "For a moment, I was afraid I would be too late."

"You almost were." Inez admitted, shivering at the memory. "We cut it a whole lot closer than I cared to admit."

"At least we're all safe." Digit said, joining in on the hug Inez was still giving Matt.

Realizing this, Inez released Matt. "Um, thanks." she said.

"No, thank _you._" Marbles said, stepping up. "You and Shari singlehandedly have saved Cyberspace."

"Well, one quarter of it, anyway." Shari said, joining the conversation. "Hi Matthew. How are you feeling?"

"Normal." Matt said, rubbing the back of his head. "Which is kinda odd, all things considered."

"I gotta know." Inez said, breaking down to her curiosity. "What was it _like_, being so evil?"

"Well, I don't...really...know." Matt admitted.

"You don't know?" Shari asked.

"See, we don't really remember." Jackie explained. "Just bits and pieces of it."

"I cannot even remember the entire incident." Motherboard said. "It is bothersome. I know there is something I should know, that I learned during all of this, but I have forgotten what it was."

"Perhaps the weapon affected the impulses of memory in all of us, scrambling them, and thus erasing them." Marbles reasoned.

"Well, whatever the case, it's probably for the better." Digit remarked. "Who'd want to remember that instant, anyway?"

"For learning some of the things Hacker is doing that he would normally keep secret." Motherboard answered.

This drew the attention of the others. "Are you implying that you know something about Hacker that you didn't before?" Marbles asked.

"I am implying nothing, Marbles." Motherboard said. "It is a possibility we must consider though."

"But it looks like that if we _did _know anything new about Hacker, it's long gone now." Matt mumbled.

"Oh well, it's a small loss, I think." Inez said. "I think the real gain here is that we stopped Hacker."

"Yes, _we _did." Shari said, looking proud of herself.

"But that does not get rid of Hacker, or the threat he presents." Motherboard pointed out.

"No, it doesn't." Matt agreed. "Hacker will still be out there to come back again."

"But I think it's safe to say that we've dealt hacker a big blow, and I think it's going to be a little while before he tries anything again." Inez said, sounding confident.

This seemed to be enough for the others, who all nodded in agreement.

"Shari," Motherboard said, changing the subject. "I will open a portal so that you can return to Frogsnorts. I am sure you are anxious to resume your studies."

Shari nodded. "That I am, Motherboard." she said, then waved as the portal opened. "Bye guys. See you next time."

Inez watched her step through the portal, returning the wave happily, but deep down, doubt tugged at her mind. She had said that Hacker would be not trying a new evil plan for awhile, and sounded confident. But now she wasn't feeling like it. She hoped that she was right...

* * *

Hacker strolled through the corridors of the Grim Wreaker, determining all of the damage the ship held at the moment. It had a dented and slightly scratched hull from the time the anger collapsed on the ship, and he never permitted Buzz and Delete to repair it fully. The experimental retention room he had designed to imprison the Cybersquad still remained in the destroyed it had been left in when the Cybersquad escaped, and Hacker had never gotten around to repairing it. And now there was all the minor damage that had been caused in the fight with the Earth brat Inez and her annoying witch friend, Shari that will need to be repaired.

It was quite a list. And personally, he was of the opinion to just ignore it. It didn't really affect the Wreaker's systems, and he had more important things to concentrate on at the moment.

Currently, he had Buzz and Delete fly the Wreaker back to the Northern Frontier. As they went, Hacker had jettisoned the now useless superweapon. He had no need for it now, and if his future plans were going to work, he'd probably need the hanger bay for use as a hanger bay again. He then went to his lab to make a few final touches on his next evil scheme. It was now ready.

Now he was heading for a certain spot in the Wreaker that had been seldom visited as of late, and it contained something very important to Hacker's plans. Buzz and Delete had been referring to it as the secret-thing-they're-not-supposed-to-talk-about-no-matter-where-they-were-unless-the-boss-says-otherwise, and he was very pleased they were taking the matter so seriously. Because it was that secret. His next major plan depended upon this one thing.

Upon reaching the room in question, he opened the door and stepped inside. The room was sparsely furnished except for a control panel and chair over to one side with a few objects stacked upon it. In the middle of the room was a small cage. Inside it, sitting, was Hacker's prisoner.

"Oh, look, it's Mr. Green Face." the prisoner remarked flatly.

Hacker frowned. "Still have your attitude, I see." he remarked.

"The cage helps." the prisoner remarked. "Makes it fester, see."

"It isn't getting you anywhere, though, now is it?" Hacker asked.

"A lot of things aren't getting me anywhere." the prisoner said, then changed the subject. "I suppose you're here to gloat. Finally got control of Cyberspace?"

"Not yet." Hacker admitted. "But I will soon."

"If I may ask, what's the hold up?"

"One of your friends threw a wrench in the gears in my plans." Hacker admitted again.

"How so?" the prisoner asked, suddenly curious. "They didn't stop you, did they?"

"As a matter of fact, they did." Hacker said. "The superweapon has been disabled, and the damage done has been reversed."

The prisoner brightened. "Well, that's good then!" he remarked without thinking.

But Hacker smiled, not at all the expression you'd expect from someone who had just been defeated.

"Not good, then." the prisoner amended, seeing Hacker's smile.

"It's good for me." Hacker said.

"But then, I don't get it." the prisoner conceded, puzzled. "How does your plot to take over Cyberspace getting beaten a good thing?"

"Because it served it's purpose." Hacker said. "It bought me just enough time to finish what I was working on, and keeping my enemies looking the wrong way."

The prisoner's eyes widened. "Wait, you mean that this whole thing with the superweapon _wasn't _your master plan for total cyberworld domination?" he asked. "That it was all a _ruse _so you could finish the _real _plan?"

"Yep." Hacker replied, clearly pleased with himself.

"So, what _is_ the plan?" the prisoner asked, then added as a second thought, "do I really want to know?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Hacker said, turning to leave. "But know this. The plan will allow me to strike at my first and foremost enemy, right at the source, where they are expecting it the least."

The room echoed with Hacker's evil laughter as the cyborg left the room, leaving the prisoner alone in the room again...

**To be continued**

So I'm mean. :p Don't miss the next fanfic in line, "Breeched." It'll be big, I assure you... ;)

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